My own party of heroes
by BatLurker
Summary: Taylor triggers with a different ability. Her Queen Administrator shard "HALPS" by bringing over super-powered people from various other Earths.
1. 1-1 Summon

I couldn't believe they did this. That Emma would go that far to hurt me. Why did she hate me so much? How had I wronged her?

I wanted to get out. I wanted someone to help me. Anyone.

I furrowed my brows, glaring at the locker door in front of me. I _felt_ something. Something that could be used to help. There was some kind of light-show outside, like molten lava, and then it was dark again.

I could feel a connection to whatever was outside. Then, I heard them walking around. Whoever was outside, was getting away.

No! You have to help me!

I had been screaming for hours now. I didn't know if I even have a voice left over to call them out.

I had to try.

I pulled air into my lungs, preparing myself to scream as loud as humanly possible.

"He-hel.p" Well, that was anti-climatic

But the figure outside stopped walking. She heard me. With how dark it was, I could barely notice that they were looking back at me. "Is… is someone here?" It was a feminine voice. She sounded scared.

For a second I thought she was one of Emma's followers. Sent to mess with me.

I shook my head. That couldn't be it. She was someone else. She was _something_ else.

It was clear she was looking around, trying to find me in the dark. After a moment, she turned again, almost like escaping from a ghost or something.

"Help" I repeated.

She stopped herself and tilted her head in my direction. "Wait, the locker?" She said, and took a tentative step in my direction.

She put her hand on the locker door and she sent it flying away, almost as if it had been made of cardboard. She looked at me and her eyes widened. Then she smiled. "Hello, there."

I looked up at her and blinked. For some reason I had been expecting Alexandria. But she looked like your average girl. Asian from the looks of it. She had a red chinese-style shirt, and no pants.

She looked down at herself, following my gaze. "Ieh! What's going on?"

I was at a loss as well. But I knew in my heart I had done it. I had brought her to me, to help me get out. I blinked as she helped me out of the locker. I had powers. And I…. I could bring capes to me? Was that my power?

"Are you Okay? Hey, where are we? Why don't I have any pants on?"

I looked at her and pointed at my throat. "Can't talk."

"Oh, right. Sorry about that." She said, and she honestly sounded like she meant it. She shook her head. "I was at Jusendo, going at this Fire-throwing asshat and…" She motioned to the hallway. "Then I was here."

She was holding me like I was a child. I wondered what kind of cape she was. Clearly she had some kind of super strength, considering how easily she dispatched the locker door.

She looked down at me. "Am I dead?"

I just shrugged my shoulders.

"Right. How would you know." She peered to my locker. "You don't happen to have some pants in here, do you?" It was only then that she seemed to realize how disgusting my locker was, what with my puke and all the other shit inside. "Ugh." She just said.

"Sorry."

She just smiled my way. "Don't worry, it's a martial artist's duty to protect anyone who can't protect themselves."

I wanted to complain that I could protect myself pretty well without any outside help. But then I noticed I had soiled her shirt with all the disgusting shit that was all over my body. I sulked. I had powers. And my power brought this cape to help me. But… I was still some kind of insect, a worm to anyone else in the world.

She opened the next locker just as easily as she had opened the first and smiled. "Well, hello pants!" She exclaimed, pretty happy with herself.

She put on someone's sweatpants and turned back to me. "I guess I should get you to the hospital. Sorry, I am not familiar with China, so you will have to lead the way."

I blinked. She thought she was in China? But she was speaking in perfect english. Why would she…?

She shook her head, interrupting my thoughts. "Now, where are my manners? My name is Tendo, Akane Tendo."


	2. 1-2 Summon

**1.2 Summon**

Akane got me to a nearby hospital quicker than a car ride would. She wasn't just strong enough to break a locker with her bare hands, she could also jump really fast, really high. I always heard about how capes would 'roof-hop', but I never thought it would be so… exhilarating.

I didn't know how, but I would study my power. And I would wield it to become a superhero. But that would have to be after I got myself out of the hospital.

I closed my eyes and let myself sleep, now that I was safe.

When my dad came rushing into my room, I woke up feeling like I had barely closed my eyes. Akane was still by my side, looking like she wanted to be somewhere else but wouldn't leave me by myself.

"Taylor!" my dad exclaimed, not really looking in Akane's general direction.

"Hey dad!" I said, still feeling out of it. I guess the doctors gave me something for the pain.

"What happened? I got a call and-" He turned, for the first time realizing that there was someone else in the room with us.

"Hello." Akane said, waving innocently.

"Dad, this is Akane, she's the one that brought me to the hospital." I said, doing my best to motion my hand Akane's way. Somehow my arm barely raised from the bed.

My dad adjusted his glasses before examining Akane, "thank you."

"It's no problem, I was there." She said, standing up. "Anyway, I have to get back to my friends now, they're probably worried sick about me suddenly ditching them."

"Oh." I just said. For some reason I was thinking Akane would hang around for a bit more. But I guess a cape as capable as she is probably affiliated to an important team or something. "Where are you going?"

"Well, first I'm going to call home, since I don't really have any way to contact my friends in China, I'm hoping they will call the Dojo so my dad will let them know I'm on my way back to Nerima."

I blinked. "Nerima?"

"Tokyo, Japan." She explained.

My dad looked my way, a question in his eyes he didn't dare voice. I looked back at him, and finally back to Akane. "Tokyo? You're japanese?"

She frowned. "Yes, I was in China because some jerks decided to kidnap me, and then I hung around to help my friends kick said jerks' collective asses." She looked down at her feet, "but I think even when I helped Ranma beat their leader I- huh," she swallowed. "They probably think I am dead, I have to let them know I'm fine."

My dad reacted faster than I did, "if you can wait, I can help you make the call to your home. Long distance calls are not easy these days, especially all the way to Japan."

Akane nodded, but kept her frown, "I will wait outside then." She looked me over, and nodded my way before leaving the room.

When she closed the door leaving my dad alone with me he glared my way. "She's ABB, isn't she?"

"What gave you that impression?"

"Red shirt. Green pants. Is Asian."

I blinked. I hadn't realized Akane's new pants were green. Now that would be a fun story to tell at parties. I shook my head. "No, she's a cape dad. I was bullied at school, you know? And they- they stuffed me in my own locker and filled it with all kinds of disgusting crap. Akane was the only one that helped me out."

He nodded. "And I'm thankful for that, but tell me Taylor, what was she doing there anyway? It was at night, right? Why would a regular student be-"

"I don't think she's a regular student." I interrupted him.

"And why is that?"

"I think- I think I am a cape too."

He tilted his head to the right, surprised. "You- you what?"

I gulped. "Just before she helped me, there was no one nearby. Then, I felt utterly desperate and felt _something_ within me."

He looked back at the now closed door to the hospital room. "Are you telling me you did something to her?"

"I think- I think I summoned her."

"Summoned her." He said, almost tasting my words. "Like a wizard."

I shook my head. "I don't know what to tell you. I needed help. My- My power brought her to help."

"All the way from China."

"She said she had been fighting some cape with her friends. That she thought she had died."

He frowned. "And she shows up here, unscratched."

I started coughing again. "I, *cough*, I think we should *cough* help her."

"Ok, we will." He assured me, but looked me over, "and who will help us?"

"What do you mean?"

"Taylor, I talked with the doctor before coming in, he says you almost died in there. You're going to stay a while on observation."

I looked down. "Oh."

"You could've died Taylor, and what's this about being bullied?" He looked like he wanted to go to school and kill someone, "Who did this?"

"I huh- I didn't see who pushed me."

"You didn't see who pushed you." He repeated. He didn't believe me. "And what about Emma? Why didn't she help you?"

"I'm not really friends with Emma anymore dad, besides I don't think she could've done anything." _because it was probably her idea to begin with._

He didn't look like he completely understood me, but he looked beyond frustrated. "Ok Taylor, I have to move fast if we don't want to be financially ruined thanks to those bullies of yours."

I blinked. "Financially ruined?"

"The Hospital visit isn't free, Taylor." He said and started pacing. "I will have a word with that hack, Blackwell about this whole thing. And I also have to give a ride to your new friend so she can call her home in Japan."

I grimaced. That call wouldn't be cheap. And dad thought my hospital stay could ruin us? "What are we going to do?"

He massaged his temples. "The school will have to pay for all of this, don't worry, I have dealt with people much harder than that principal of yours." He paused and asked me, "they never stopped the bullies, right? The school staff, I mean."

I shook my head, "sometimes they would even look the other way."

His face darkened at that. "And they let you inside that locker for who knows how many hours." It looked like he was ready to punch someone.

He sighed, and forced himself to smile my way, "I will deal with them now Taylor, you don't have to worry. Please, just go to sleep. The doctor said you needed it."

I numbly nodded, and closed my eyes. I vaguely heard him leave my room before my strength left me and I was back to sleep.

* * *

Something strange happened then. I knew I was asleep. I could even hear myself lightly snoring.

But I was at the same time wide awake, pacing by the waiting room.

I tried to turn my head when I heard my dad coming my way, but I had no control over my body. It was like I was just riding shotgun.

My lips started moving and I said, "Mr Hebert?"

He barely stopped to look my way, "Oh, Akay neh, was it?"

I gritted my teeth at that. "Akane."

He nodded, "right, sorry." He said and motioned me to follow him.

I was in Akane's mind. Or rather, I could see, hear, and feel what she could. I don't think I could really read her mind or anything like that.

My dad started saying something, but I wasn't really paying him attention. I was focusing on how good Akane's eyesight was. I mean, with my glasses I can see as well as possible, but I'm pretty sure Akane is beyond 20/20, everything just looked like it was so full of color. Maybe she's more than super-strong? Wait, no, that's not the word they use in PHO, isn't it? What was it? Bulk? Hulk? Troll? No, Brute.

Right. Akane was some sort of Brute. But looking at how good her senses are, I guess she's also some kind of Thinker? I think that falls in that category.

And what category do I fall in? I can bring people over from far away, that's a Mover I guess, and some sort of Thinker since I bring over someone that can help me. But now I'm piggy-backing over Akane's senses, I guess I may be some sort of Master?

I tried to move Akane's head again. Commanding it to move.

It didn't.

Not a Master then. Or rather, not full mind-control Master at least.

"What did you mean back there?" Akane suddenly says, bringing to my attention their conversation.

My dad looked puzzled, "I don't think I follow?"

"About Japan. You said 'Long distance calls are not easy, especially to Japan'. What do you mean by 'especially to Japan'"

Wait. What? Why would Akane ask such a question?

"I meant that with the Endbringer attack, and how it affected Japan, I'm surprised you even have family back home, to tell you the truth. And services back there are not really up-to speed, I don't know if it's even possible to call all the way to Tokyo."

All the color drained from Akane's face. "Endbringer? What's that?"

My dad looked at Akane like she had grown a second head. "You- you don't know?"

Akane shook her head. "Sorry, no. When did this happen?"

"Back in 1998, no wait- 1999, it destroyed a southern Island and flooded the whole country. Japan has been in ruins since." My dad looked Akane's way with a worried expression, "there have been countless of refugees coming to America, we have a bunch here in Brockton Bay."

Akane was on the verge of tears. "1999!? What year is it?"

"What year?"

"Yes!"

I could feel that Akane was agitated. I wonder what's going on.

"2011." He simply said.

Akane was trembling. "And you're saying we are in…"

"Brockton Bay. It's in New Hampshire, America." He all but stopped walking, just to look at her face. "Akane, what's going on?"

She was crying now. "I- huh, I was in 1992. Ranma was fighting Saffron in Jusendo, China. He was going to die to the fire, so I helped him. I saved him. I gave him a fighting chance. And he killed Saffron, he saved, he-" Akane massaged her eyes. "I almost died there. And then I was at that school with Taylor."

"1992?" He repeated, and blinked. "You really remember dying in 1992?" He almost whispered the last part, looking around to make sure no one was listening in.

"I remember almost dying in 1992." Akane corrected, rather weakly.

My dad grabbed Akane by the arm and resumed his pace. "Come on, we will continue talking when we're in the car. Anyone could listen in."

It felt like Akane was about to refuse, but she ended up just nodding and following my dad to his car.

But by the car were four men wearing jackets that read 'EEE'. It looked like they had been drinking beer and smoking. My dad tried to around them but they noticed Akane.

"Hey there! Look at this bitch, you're far away from your third-world country, you chink!" One of the Empire grunts said.

The second one squashed the beer can he had been drinking. "And look at this, hey you, old guy, yes, you asshole!" He said, pointing at my dad. "What the hell are you doing, banging a chink whore from the ABB? Don't you have any respect for your race?"

"Yeah!" the youngest of the bunch said, and spit at my dad. "I hate blood traitors like you, why don't you-"

My dad cleaned the spit with his sleeve, and talked over the young guy, "we're not in empire territory."

"Not in empire territory he says," the biggest man said, he had a crooked nose, like a boxer. He glared at my dad. "Don't you know the whole city is empire territory?"

Akane took a step forward. "I don't know who you are, but you better scram, or else-"

"Or else what, bitch?"

Akane narrowed her eyes. "Or else I show you what the heir of the Tendo School of Anything goes Martial Arts can do."

Crooked-nose laughed heartily at that, "She thinks we're scared of some karate!"

Akane took a stance, but continued talking with my dad, "Mr. Hebert, stay behind. Who are these people?"

"They're members of the Empire Eighty Eight, a local gang of neo-nazis."

"Neo-nazi? Like, Hitler?"

"That would be Old-Nazi, but yes." My dad said, with the strangest smile drawn in his face. What was he thinking?

Akane smiled, "Ok, who goes first?" She asked the Empire grunts. They all looked at each other and just jumped her all at the same time.

Akane side-stepped a punch to to stomach and lightly tapped the neck of Crooked-nose. Then jumped over a crowbar from the youngest grunt and kicked him straight in the jaw. When the two others tried to hit her at the same time, she just threw one punch to her right, and one to her left.

They all fell to the floor. Unconscious.

My dad widened his eyes. "You're really strong.

Akane smiled his way, "thanks." She said as she walked to the car.

My dad took the driver's seat and opened the passenger's door for her. "Come on, I don't want to be around when they call for help."

* * *

"So. 1992. China." Dad said, once they were safe, blocks away from the Empire grunts.

Akane's lips twitched. "I don't know what to tell you. Is it really 2011?"

"Yes. And we're really in America. " He said.

"How?"

He sighed. "Taylor told me she thinks she's a cape. That her power brought you to her."

"But… all the way to 2011?" That was an interesting question. I thought I had some sort of Mover power. But I didn't just pull her from China to Brockton Bay. I pulled her from 1992 to 2011.

My dad nodded. "I was thinking… you said you died?"

"I said I think I was dying. I didn't die. Ranma saved me. Or else I would still be the size of a Barbie."

My dad eyed Akane quizzingly. "A Barbie?"

"Magic fire." She explained, shrugging her shoulders. "There was a magic water that reversed the effect. Ranma got me to it in time. I think he did."

"Maybe he didn't."

I could feel… anger? bubbling within Akane. "I remember him holding me. I remember him putting his shirt on me because I was naked. I remember him telling me that he loved me. That he wished he-" Akane stopped talking and looked down.

My dad remained silent.

"He didn't save me. Didn't he?" Akane asked.

"I- I don't know. It's over my pay grade." He replied.

Akane was crying again. "And it's been… what, 19 years? He probably married one of those sluts in the meantime." She made a face. "He's almost as old as my dad by now."

My dad remained silent. But I could see it in his face. What he was thinking. He was wondering if this 'Ranma' was even alive at this point. Leviathan probably killed him in 1999, like he did to pretty much all of Japan's heroes.

I just hope Akane can get past this. I think I can help her cope, if she'll let me.


	3. 1-3 Summon

**1.3 Summon**

Akane was really sad after we learned she had died in 1992, and that my power had 'resurrected' her. Attempting to call to her home proved fruitless. From what little information my dad and her could gather, the Nerima ward had been completely flooded. Everyone in the area had either died in 1999 or left for greener pastures.

My dad talked to some of his friends from city hall to assist in getting the Japanese government find out if Akane's father, sisters, or Ranma were alive and living somewhere else. Curiously enough, they found that someone that had lived in Nerima and had exactly the same name as Akane's mom was still alive somewhere in America, but dad stopped that line of investigation when Akane was very clear that her mother had died years before, back in 1990.

At least my dad's contacts weren't completely useless. They provided Akane with identification, with her date of birth listed as being born on 1994, which would have made her young enough to for her to have gotten 'lost' on the day Leviathan attacked Kyushu. The Japanese government apparently lost a lot of records in 1999 and they were still giving new identifications to refugees.

On another matter, my dad had a very heated argument with principal Blackwell. She not only outright refused to pay for my hospital stay, but she also demanded us pay the repair costs for the two lockers that Akane had wrecked. She commented that she had witness stating that I had joined or started a gang and that they had proof that I had been to the school at night. Of course she couldn't explain why my locker was a mess along with all my stuff.

My dad got a lawyer from the union to give us a hand. He assured us that the case was clear and cut. According to him everything the school had against us was circumstantial at best, while we had the report from the Hospital, and the police making their own investigation to back up our claims.

All in all, the whole thing left a very sour taste in my mouth.

At least I now had Akane as a friend. She visited every day, filling the silence with stories she and her friends had before it all ended in China.

She told me about how Ranma was cursed to become a woman when cold water hit him (What kind of cape power was that, I'm not sure), how he learned some martial arts technique that allowed him to punch faster than the eye can follow, how he could throw kinetic beams of concentrated confidence (What the hell does that mean anyway?), and how he could create hurricanes with a single punch.

All in all, Ranma sounded like he had been one of the strongest capes ever. Maybe Triumvirate level. The question remained then, why had I never heard of him?

It all went back to Leviathan's attack on Kyushuu. I knew for a fact that it had killed countless capes until Lung fought him to a stand-still. I still thought Ranma had died then. Maybe there was something in PHO that could lead us figure out what had happened to him. But since I was stuck in the hospital, I couldn't really go to the library and investigate.

"I miss the jerk." Akane said, on my fifth day of my hospital stay.

"I can understand how you might be feeling." I said, and nodded, trying to sound as emphatic as possible. "I miss my mom."

Akane raised her head to watch my eyes, "yes, I miss my mom as well." She started silently crying with that. I mentally kicked myself. I should be trying to make her feel better. Not worse.

I decided to change the subject, "so, my dad told me you are now an official citizen of Brockton Bay." That was a lie. I hadn't talked with my dad at all about this. I knew because I could see and hear everything Akane could. That aspect of my power hadn't turned off after I woke up, which was weird when I was in the same room as Akane. What was especially strange is that I didn't really feel overwhelmed by the sudden doubling of my senses.

Aken shifted on her seat, clearly uncomfortable. "Yes, your dad said it wouldn't work if I said I was born in 1975. I'm now officially sixteen again."

"Fifteen." I corrected her.

She blinks. "What? No, it says I was born on 1994, here, take a look." She said, passing me her ID.

I smiled at that. "I know, but it's January, and you were 'born' on April. Still, for someone in her mid-thirties, you can pass as a fifteen year old kid."

She softly laughed at that. "No. I can't." She paused looking herself over. "I guess I could." She was young after all. Just as tall as me, and her figure wasn't fully developed. Her breasts were barely bigger than mine.

I looked at the window and my smile softened. "Have you given thought about where you're going to stay? What you're going to do now?"

She blinked. "Well, I thought I could stay with you guys until I can get my own place." She sounded positively terrified at the concept of living on her own. "I hope I can help with the chores at least. My cooking isn't the best but I can clean just fine."

I raised an eyebrow at that. She was feeling particularly nervous when she mentioned her cooking. Almost like she wasn't confident in her own abilities.

"Of course you can stay with us." I assured her.

She nodded, and sighed in relief. "Thanks, you don't know how much I needed that."

I smirked, but didn't say anything.

She followed my gaze to the window, a tree blocked the view. "You're leaving home later today, right?"

"That's what the doctors are telling me, at least. But I won't be back to school for a few more days."

"Oh, I was looking forward to you showing me around. I don't know anyone else here."

I grimaced at that. Since Akane was now officially fifteen, she had to go to school. Of course since she wasn't in the system she had to subject herself to countless tests so they could figure out where to place her. If all went well she would be a sophomore.

"Have you thought what you are going to do after school?"

"Do?" she said, not really understanding.

"With your powers, I mean. You could be a hero."

She blinked, and tilted her head. "To tell you the truth, I'm not used to be the hero. Last time I tried to save someone, I ended up dying myself. I'm more used to be the damsel in distress."

"I know you are a brute, strong enough to beat the crap out of grown men in a few seconds. That should count for something, right?"

She closed her hand into a fist and looked at it. "Brute? I'm not a brute. I can control my strength I-"

"Brute is just a term for super strength."

"Oh. I guess, I would qualify. I trained my whole life to be as strong as I am. I just used to hang around people much more capable."

 _Like Ranma_. I thought, but didn't say it out loud. I studied how her expression felt. She didn't sound happy to admit that.

I shook my head and decided to change my angle. "Ok, but you're still pretty strong. How strong by the way?"

She blinked. "I'm not sure. I could probably use a telephone pole as a weapon if I wanted."

"That's pretty strong. We should test later your limits." I paused and added, "and what about resistance? How much damage can you take without hurting yourself too much?" I know I heard about some capes who where Alexandria-level strong, but couldn't take a hit, and their bones shattered the moment they tried to hit something with their full strength.

She paused, deep in thought for a while before she replied, "well, me and my friends used to think that getting knocked out by being hit by a 3 ton boulder made you a wimp."

"You can take that much damage?" I asked, not really believing it.

She scratched the back of her head. "Well, yeah. I wouldn't go unscratched after the fact or anything. But sure. I could." She grimaced, before adding. "I think that after my encounter with Saffron, I'm now pretty much immune to fire. I wouldn't test it, but it's there."

I made a mental note to check on PHO her ratings. If I was going to push her into becoming a hero, I'd have to be a cape geek myself.

"What about speed? How fast can you move?"

"Huh, I can run as fast as a car. Not a race car or anything like that. My limit is probably 80 Kilometers per hour. I can hit about 100 times in a single second."

"That's excellent. You could really make a difference."

She didn't sound convinced. "What kind of difference?"

"The city is a shit-hole thanks to the gangs. You met Empire Eighty Eight members the other day, right?" When she nodded, I continued, "they're just one gang, the biggest with the most capes, but there's also the ABB, which is composed of Asian refugees and has a couple of capes as well. Then there's the Merchants, they also have some capes, and they force kids to become drug addicts. They're all scum."

"You keep using that word. 'Cape'. Is that something to describe people with 'powers'?"

I nodded slowly. Surely in 1992 the term was existed? I mean, the first super-hero, Scion, showed up in 1982. "I'm also a cape, but with my powers I'm probably more limited to support. But if we team-up we could clean this city."

"A team? Like the Zyurangers, from TV?"

Zyuurangers? That was Super Sentai. Right? The 'rangers' thing made me think of that. "Sure. Just like that."

She smirked. "If I don't have to go around making stupid poses, I'm in."

"Excellent! I'm glad you're in. We will need a cape-name for you. What else can you do?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, as the heir of the Tendo School of Anything Goes, I am dan level at Kenpo, Karate, Kendo, Aikido, and black belt or lower in few other styles."

"Kendo is the one with the sword, right? We could try getting a sword for you and go with a Samurai theme."

She slowly nodded. "I can use a sword just fine. But a Samurai theme sounds too much to an moron I used to know." She paused and looked up, like just remembering something. "If I have a katana, or even a bokken for that matter, I could use it for ranged attacks."

"Ranged attacks as in, throwing the sword around?" That didn't seem practical.

Akane shook her head, and took the plastic knife from my hospital meal. "Like this." She said, and stood up, opened the window and pointed at the tree that was blocking our view. She flicked her wrist and suddenly one of the tree's branches was cut in two.

"Ok, that's badass."

She raised an eyebrow. "Really? It's not really the most advanced thing I can do. Even that moron I mentioned could do it, and Kuno is easily the weakest of my- huh- 'friends'."

"It's definitely useful. Could you break weapons with this?" I asked as she handed me back my plastic knife.

"Like guns? Or swords?"

"Guns."

"Maybe. Can't say I ever tried." She sighed. "But if you think going around looking for fights with these 'capes' is a good idea, I'll probably have to learn some of Ranma's techniques." She didn't sound convinced that she could learn these 'techniques', but I got the feeling that she was willing to give it a try.

"Wait, you can do that?" That was strange. How could she even copy an ability from another cape. How did that work? Was she a Trump? If she could copy any cape's powers then she's beyond broken. I could already see the nerds at PHO asking for a 'nerf'.

"Well, yes. They're just techniques. For example, the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken allowed Ranma to go from around five hundred punches per second to fast enough that I couldn't follow with my eyes. He punched so fast it looked like a single punch."

I guess her power isn't super-strength. It's the ability to get stronger with training and not really have a normal human cap. Ranma had the same power? Maybe they were cousins or something. I heard that capes from the same family have similar powers. If they were cousins and Akane was planning on marrying him that would be… ugh, I better stay away from that. Too much information.

"But you said you can throw one hundred punches per second. Isn't that fast enough?"

"Sure, for dealing with street punks. If the bad guys have people with powers, I'm not sure that's really all that impressive."

"Ok…" I said, unconvinced. One hundred punches a second would qualify her as a speedster.

"Or I could go for Ryouga's Bakusai Tenketsu. I know exactly how to train for that. Like the Amaguriken, it gives a constant boost. But instead in speed, in endurance." When I gave her a quizzing look, she explained, "Ranma could hit so hard he could destroy mountains. Ryouga was tough enough he could take Ranma's punches and keep fighting."

This Ryouga person sounds like another Triunvirate level cape if he could take that kind of hits. I don't think even Alexandria would be able to take that kind of damage.

"What about those hard-light kinetic blasts you talked about before?"

"Shi Shi Hoko Dan and Moko Takabisha." She said, and made a face. "Shi Shi Hoko Dan is fueled by depression. Sure, I feel sad right now that I lost everything. But I don't think my blasts could be stronger than my punches. Being sad is not the same thing as being depressed."

"What about the other one, Moko Takabisha?"

"Not much better. In fact, probably worse. It's fueled by confidence."

"How do these even work anyway?" The whole 'confidence' and 'depression' fueled blasts of death made no sense. Sure there was a ward that did something similar, but I don't think his blasts could level a building like Akane claimed Ranma's blasts could.

"Focus on the emotion, shape it into a sphere between your hands, throw it as a blast to the nearest opponent. If I could do something like that, it would make the long-ranged sword-slash redundant." She smiled my way, "but I really can't. I don't have the right emotions, and I don't have good enough control over my Ki to do it anyway."

Ki. She explained that before, but it all sounded too much like magic to me. Powers aren't magic. But if she believed her abilities were powered by this 'Ki', then to her that's how it was. I hope I can convince her to not go around saying that. I don't want her to be the laughing stock of local cape community.

I shook my head when an idea popped into my mind. "What would happen if you used some other emotion?"

She blinked. "I guess I could work with anger. I-" She stopped herself, and looked like she was thinking about it. "In theory I could do it. I am, huh," she blushed. "I am easily enraged."

Huh. She didn't show. I guess we have something else in common. "Ok, we are a team, then?"

"We are a team."

I smiled, giddy. "Ok, we will have to figure out what your cape name will be, and I can make you a costume. It will be great!"

She massaged her eyes, "just- just don't make me quote Shakespeare or dress like a Samurai."

"I won't." I promised.


	4. 1-4 Summon

**1.4 Summon**

Akane was practicing a choreography of moves, which included punches, kicks, and jumps. I didn't think it was easy, but she made it look like it was. She had insisted that all her parahuman abilities were thanks to her 'Ki' and that she could teach me how to use it. Of course, with me not training my whole life, the prospect of doing anything half as impressive as she was grim. That's it, if this 'Ki' even worked as she described it.

She left for school early, but not before making sure I knew all the steps of a much more basic choreography that she mentioned was an introductory 'kata' for her school of martial arts. "Anything Goes" doesn't sound like any sensible school of martial arts I ever heard of. Not that I heard of any school of martial arts that is. But "Anything Goes" sounds more like Mexican Lucha or something.

Even while I practiced what Akane had taught me, I still focused on her whereabouts. I still had to tell Akane about that tidbit. But I don't know how she would react to that. Would she think I could mind-control her?

I shook my head and shifted gears. Trying to imitate the more complex choreography Akane had shown me before.

Punch, punch, jump, kick, roll, uppercut, jump, kick.

I miss-stepped and a moment later my ankle was on fire.

I massaged it and wondered what I had done wrong. My punches had only a fraction of Akane's strength, my kicks were sloppy, wobbly even. But the biggest problem was the jump.

I mean, I can jump like a normal person. Akane can jump a couple of yards high with ease.

I closed my eyes, still massaging my ankle.

* * *

Some people were staring at Akane, muttering among themselves. I guessed they just thought she was ABB. While we had replaced her green pants with one of my jeans, she refused to wear anything other than her red shirt.

I think she mentioned something to my dad the other day, that her boyfriend, Ranma had given her the shirt moments before she died, so she could keep some modesty. I wonder how would that feel. Being loved like that. Even if I'm pretty sure Ranma was her cousin, it's still kind of sweet.

I watched as Akane was instructed by a guidance counselor (I wasn't aware those existed at Winslow) what her classes would be and gave her a small photocopy of a very rudimentary map of the school. As Akane looked down at the map, I couldn't help but wonder who had drawn it. Certainly not an architect or an Engineer. Probably one of the teachers, but more likely one of the more studious kids. It was good enough to get the general idea where each classroom was, at least.

The counselor marked some rooms with a pen and then wrote a number at the bottom of the paper. She grunted Akane's way, "that's your locker. Don't be late for class, and don't cause trouble."

"Why would I cause trouble?" Akane asked, carefully. I could sense her anger beginning to bubble. She didn't like being called a troublemaker.

"No reason." The counselor said, eyeing Akane's shirt.

Akane left without saying anything else, doing her best to find her locker.

I opened my eyes and gulped. The three bitches were hanging out, blocking her locker.

I started pacing and winced as my ankle started hurting again. I cursed under my breath. I needed some way to communicate with Akane, advise her how to deal with them. If she got angry and punched a hole on Emma's stomach… eh, I better get some popcorn.

"So, I see she's not here again." Emma was saying, her smile reminded me of warmer days, particularly christmas. It was also a reminder of how much Emma had changed, how much she had betrayed what we had.

Sophia chuckled, "I don't think we're going to see her anytime soon, if ever."

"That prank totally showed her who's boss, Emma." Madison said, almost jumping up and down cutely.

Emma smirked. "I heard she stayed a whole week at the Hospital." When the other girls whistled, impressed, she continued, "her dad barely makes enough money to feed her, so if they don't lock her with all the other loonies, I expect them to be begging for food sometime next week."

"Excuse me, you're blocking my locker." Akane said, her voice betraying no emotion. I wondered if she had paid attention to what they had been talking about, or if she had been too focused looking for her locker to care.

Emma looked at Sophia, and they both snorted. "Excuse me?"

Akane took another step and was just a few inches from them. She was taller than all of them, and was glaring daggers. "My locker. I'm new." She said, showing them the photocopy with her locker number the counselor had hastily written.

"Look, we're having a private conversation here, and-"

Akane extended her hand and opened her locker. Pushing Emma away, but not strongly enough to throw her to the floor. She stored her bag inside, and took the books she would need for her first period class. When she closed the door, she looked back at the shocked Emma. "If someone tells you you're blocking their locker, you move."

Emma was about to reply, but Sophia silenced her with her hand and held Akane's shoulder. "You don't get to act tough like that and walk away. What did Emma even do to you?"

Akane rolled her eyes. "Like I said, she was blocking my locker." She turned, looking like she hadn't even noticed Sophia holding her. I'm pretty sure I heard her whine and holding her wrist. Had Akane managed to twist her wrist?

I could hear Sophia cursing for a moment before she started to run at Akane.

Something stroke Akane. Like electricity.

Akane ducked without looking back, and I could see a punch going safely over her head. Akane was about to elbow Sophia, but stopped herself at the last moment.

Another shock, and Akane side-rolled to a nearby locker. Sophia had tried to kick Akane, but apparently Akane could sense her attacks before they hit.

I blinked. Those shocks… they were some kind of early-warning system? I think I read on one of dad's old comic-books of a fictional hero that had something like that. Some sort of precognition? How many abilities did Akane have?

Sophia threw something at Akane, but she just caught it without even looking at it. The shook didn't act this time. I guess it only activated when she couldn't sense attacks the normal way?

Akane closed her hand and let a shattered knife fell to the floor.

Sophia was breathing hard, glaring daggers at Akane. "What the fuck?"

Akane rose to her feet. "I don't know what your problem is. But you're not going to bully anyone ever again while I am here." She glared back at Sophia. "Do you understand me?"

Sophia snorted. "Bully? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't play stupid with me, Sophia Hess. Taylor told me about you and your little group. You disgust me." Akane turned to continue walking to the classroom. Sophia didn't try to strike her this time.

It was obvious Akane was a cape.

Sophia was probably too busy shitting bricks.

* * *

"You can't out yourself like that!" I was yelling at Akane, later that day. We were at the backyard, supposedly so Akane could continue teaching me to defend myself.

She looked almost bored. "Why not? I never bothered pretending to be weak." She made a face, "unless I was weak compared to some jerk who decided to kidnap me, obviously."

"Obviously." I repeated, and smiled at her. "Look, I don't know how it was when you were active in Japan, but these days, here in America, capes hide who they are."

Akane tilted her head. "Why?"

"Because if some gang found out you have powers, they would investigate you, find out you live with me and dad, and use us as hostages so you have to do whatever they order you."

Akane nodded, but didn't look convinced. "I guess things might be different over here."

"Might be?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ok. Are. Things are different over here."

I nodded, but smirked at her. "Sophia probably is scared shitless now."

Akane shrugged her shoulders, and sat on the ground, she then put on an alarm clock next to her, took note of it, and then started punching the ground in front of her, stopping only a moment later.

"324 punches in three seconds, that's... 108 per second?"

"Yes." I said. "Why?"

"Like I said, Ranma went from 500 punches per second to fast enough I couldn't follow with my eyes."

"You mean, you could follow 500 punches per second with your eyes?"

"Yes, of course." She said, and sighed. "I don't think I will get to that level anytime soon."

"Oh, and what was that ability from before, you know, when Sophia was trying to hit you?"

Akane looked at me strangely. "What ability?"

"You know, that- huh- shock. When you dodged without even looking."

"Danger sense." She said, still looking at me like she was trying to solve a puzzle.

I realized she figured something odd was going on. "Oh, you're wondering how I noticed that from here, when you were all the way at school, right?"

"Something like that, yes."

"I can-" I swallowed, "I can see what you see, and hear what you hear. Actually, feel whatever you feel. When your 'danger sense' shook you, I felt it."

Akane studied my face for a long while. For a split of a second, I thought she was about to slap me. But she never even raised her hand.

She took a deep breath before sighing. "Is it because your power? Because you resurrected me?"

"I think so. I'd have to trigger my power again to make sure, but yes. It's like a second nature to me."

"So, you're hearing this conversation in an echo? How do you even manage yourself with-?"

I interrupted her, "I don't get overloaded or anything like that from the extra information coming to my brain." I bit my lip. "I am not even sure it's coming to my brain. Maybe it's all in your head and I'm using some of your brain to extend my own or-"

"I get it, I get it. You don't know."

"Is it going to be a problem?"

She crossed her arms. "I don't know. It shouldn't be. It's not like you're a pervert or anything like that, right? You're not going to go around peeping on me when I'm taking a bath?"

"Can't really help it. But no, I don't plan to actively, huh, 'peep' on you."

For a few moments remained silent. Like she was thinking how to proceed. Finally, she nodded and smiled at me. "Ok. You mentioned you felt my danger sense kicking in, right?"

"Right."

"That means you can tap into senses I had to train to have." She frowned. "Maybe you can have your own danger sense? We can start with you trying to see if my muscle memory works on you."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

"I mean, I will show you some katas, and you will follow them. If you can imitate them well enough, then it means our little link could help you learn martial arts much faster than normal."

She showed me the same basic choreography from the morning, which I recreated 'perfectly' (her words, not mine). She showed me some more, until I showed her the one that had hurt my ankle in the morning. I misstepped just like I did earlier, but this time Akane was there to prevent my fall.

Akane looked somewhat happy. "Okay, good news is, you pretty much have the same kind of instincts I have. If we train you, you could be Dan level at Kenpo in a few months. Bad news is, it looks like you're kind of expecting to have the same strength and agility I have. That could lead you getting hurt, or worse. We need to improve your strength, all around. You're way too skinny."

Akane made a motion to kick me, and stopped at the last second. Her foot mere inches from my nose.

"That didn't kickstart your danger sense, right?"

I gulped. "I only realized you were going to hit me after you started moving, and-"

"Ok, Ok." She said, Interrupting me. She lowered her leg. "I projected killing intent there. The danger sense should've let you know to either block or dodge. Looks like you have the potential, but everything is untapped."

"So, what do we do?"

"We have to wake up your own danger sense. If you're able to know you're about to get hurt, it will be easier to train you how to properly dodge attacks."

I eyed her warily. "You just want to hurt me, don't you?"

"Who, me?" She teased, and lightly tapped the palm of her hand with her fist. "You must have mistaken me with someone else


	5. 1-5 Summon

**1.5 Summon**

There was no 80's training montage for us. Akane's idea of showing me how her danger sense worked was simply to go to the docks to find some gang members to beat up. Her idea was that, if I could 'taste' her danger sense enough, then my own danger sense could start working.

I wasn't sure something like that could work, to tell you the truth. I'm fairly certain her danger sense is a parahuman ability, and not something you can learn, like her choreographies of kicks and punches. But I was ecstatic at the prospect of going out and do some super-heroing, even if Akane was the only 'super' out of us.

She was holding me while she roof-hopped around the docks. We were looking for Merchants. I didn't object to the idea. Of course, I wasn't ready. But going in with Akane, I felt that we could start cleaning the city earlier than expected.

I was focusing on Akane's sense of touch and direction. Every motion she made with her body, jumping from building to building was being mentally recorded. I felt I could replicate her moves if given the opportunity. But I still lacked her sheer super human strength.

Suddenly, we heard what sounded like a gunshot a couple of blocks away. Akane stopped, and looked around. She was trying to get a sense of what was going on.

"Ok." She said, nodding to herself. "Time to show you how it's done."

"Erm, Akane?"

She turned towards me. "Yes?"

"Aren't you going to wear the mask?" I asked, handing her a rather ugly piece of red cloth with two holes I had hastily cut earlier that day.

She took the cloth and attached it to her head in a way that covered her face, but still showed her mouth. "How do I look?"

I eyed her chinese shirt, and jeans. "Like you're wearing your very first costume."

She snorted. "Well, of course." She eyed the blue cloth I was putting over my head. "You know you're not going in tonight, right?"

I smiled. "Of course, but I don't want anyone seeing us talking if I don't have a mask."

She roof-hopped a bit more until we were exactly above the fight. With Akane's eyesight, I managed to pinpoint four ABB fighting three Merchants. Two bystanders looked knocked out by some trash cans. No capes were in sight.

There was only one apparent gun, one of the members of the ABB was holding it, pointing at one of the bystanders, who appeared to be attempting to get up to escape the gang fight.

I didn't notice Akane jumping down from the seven story building we had been standing on. She landed swiftly between the bystanders -who I now realized were just some druggies looking for a fix- and the ABB.

Gun!ABB looked surprised at the sudden appearance of a cape. He closed his eyes tight and started firing at Akane's general direction.

Each shot produced a new danger sense shock, which Akane seemed to be able to read well enough to dodge just in time. After the sixth shot, she jumped to the side, grabbed a trash can lid and threw it at him like a frisbee, sending him flying a few yards back.

The merchants didn't need to be told, they just took the opportunity to run away. Akane turned, looking like she was about to follow, but quickly decided to stay and deal with the remaining ABB instead.

They were three still standing, one was holding some sort of wooden sword, while the other two had switchblades.

Akane darted forward, going for the wooden sword-wielding ABB. In a single motion, she parried a slash and snatched the sword away from him. When he tried to grab it back, she twisted it around and hit him on the forehead with the hilt. He promptly fell on the sidewalk, knocked out.

The two knife-wielding ABB looked at each other and bolted at different directions. I guess they were smarter than they looked. They knew they were no match for the girl.

Akane raised the wooden sword, and slashed the air twice. An instant later both ABB were down in the middle of the street, holding their legs. I think I saw a small puddle of blood forming around them.

"Crap." I muttered, and went for the fire-escape. I hoped they wouldn't bleed to death.

By the time I got street-level, I noticed that someone else was casually walking towards Akane. I hid behind the trash-cans and waited to see if they were friendly or not.

The newcomer was a girl. But not any girl. A cape. Or she looked like a cape at least, but not one I ever heard of.

She had long black hair, with her face covered by dark goggles and a gas mask. I wasn't sure if she was ABB, Merchant or even Empire, her mask didn't allow for easily discerning her ethnicity.

"Well, well, well." She said, in almost a sing-song voice, but not quite. "What do we have here?" She stopped when she was a few yards away from Akane. I noticed she had some sort of tube in her hands, pointing it at the japanese girl.

Akane raised her newly acquired wooden sword at the newcomer. "Not another step!"

"Oh? And why should I listen to you?"

Akane pulled back her sword in preparation for a wide slash, but at the same time, I saw the other girl pressing some sort of button in her tube. I realized, it wasn't any tube. It was a tinker-tech weapon.

I felt Akane's danger sense screaming for her to get out of the way.

"Akane! Be careful I think it's-" I screamed, and then, something popped from Gas Mask's tube and a second later there was an explosion that sent Akane flying back to a nearby building.

I left my hiding spot and started running towards Akane. I could barely see anything with all the dust in the air. My ears were ringing. What the hell was that? It was like some sort of super-grenade launcher or something.

Before I managed three steps, I heard the popping sound a second time. I felt something very similar to Akane's danger sense wailing at me. I didn't need to be told twice, I threw myself to the side, and barely got out of the way from the second explosion.

"Oh, we got more company!" Gas Mask said, she seemed very proud of herself. With my ears ringing and my eyes seeing double, she almost looked like some sort of monstrous spider that had found herself a couple of flies to eat for dinner.

I tried to crawl out of the way, but Gas Mask got to me, and held me by the back of my head, she pushed me down to the asphalt. I think I broke my nose at that point. "Now, now, you can't get away little girl. You two like to play heroes?"

"You won't-" I started to say, but she pushed me down a second time, and I gasped for breath

"I won't what? Get away? Beat you? Kill you?" She laughed. "Little girl, you messed with the wrong gang. ABB reigns supreme in this city. Soon everyone will know, and you will be the first message."

She was still pinning me to the ground, holding me in place with her knee on my back. She was putting some sort of collar around my neck. It was like those doctors give people who hurt their necks.

"You're going to go boom!" She exclaimed, almost childish. I heard something start ticking in the collar.

"What did-" I wanted to ask, but a third time she pushed me down.

"No, you don't get to speak." She said. "Now, if I can find your friend. Or rather, your friend's pieces…" she stood up and started walking towards the wall Akane had been sent flying a moment before.

Suddenly, Gas Mask fell to the floor, holding her knee. It was bleeding just like the other ABB. "Wha-?" she muttered, and suddenly I saw a shadow rocketing towards me.

A moment later, I was again behind the trash cans. Akane's shirt was still in one piece, but she was bleeding from the side of her head. Her mask was a mess, but I thought she was in a much better condition than I was.

Akane turned and glared at Gas Mask. A flick of her hand, and the sword cut the grenade launcher in two. "It's over, you're not getting away."

Gas Mask looked confused for a moment, then she started laughing again. "Brute? You think you beat me just because you're a brute?"

Akane gritted her teeth. "I hate being called that."

"If you take another step in my direction, your blue friend over there can say goodbye to her preety little head." She said, pointing in my direction.

Akane turned back to me, realizing for the first time I had some sort of metal collar around my neck. "What did she do?"

I gulped. "I think- I think she put a bomb in my neck."

"Now, I'm going to leave. But the next time we see each other, you two are not leaving in one piece."

"I think not." Akane said, and a moment later was next to Gas Mask, she lightly tapped her neck and the other cape fell to the floor in one swift motion.

"Did you-?"

Akane shook her head. "I just put her to sleep. She talks too much." she ran at me and started trying to get the collar out of my neck. Suddenly, the ticking was faster.

"Oh, oh." She said.

"Oh, oh?" I asked.

"There's a counter." She said, I knew, I was seeing what she was seeing. The moment she had tried to get the collar away from me, the timer went from 5 minutes to 2. And it was ticking down faster than normal. I probably had a minute.

I started hyperventilating. Suddenly I felt like I was back in the locker, trapped and unable to escape. Not even Akane could help me now. If she tried again, she might die herself.

I closed my eyes. "Go away, you don't want to be hurt by the explosion, just- just tell my dad I love him."

Akane was about to protest, but suddenly, there was a lightshow a little bit away from us, and suddenly water started going around us. Using Akane's eyes, I saw that there was a man there, he was gasping for breath.

I blinked, when I realized that I was also piggybacking to the man's senses. It felt strange, not because he had any super-senses like Akane did, but because he was drowning. I could feel the life going away from him as the seconds passed. Akane looked at me, and then at the timer, I had less than a minute now.

"My power summoned him, maybe, maybe he can help me!"

Akane nodded and started performing CPR on the man. I was cursing inside, why would my power bring a man that was drowning? Even if he knew how to help me, I didn't have the time to-

I realized, Akane had managed to get him to vomit at least a gallon of water. She helped him stand up, and quickly brought him to me.

"What- what's going on, where's my lab?" The man asked us, but Akane dropped him to my side and pointed.

"Help her! Disarm the bomb!" She exclaimed.

The man's eyes widened and put his hand over the timer. I had ten seconds left.

He quickly removed the LCD and turned to Akane. "I need something to cut the wires!"

"Which one?" Akane asked, approaching.

"This one!" He exclaimed, pointing at a green one. Huh. Not the red one? Who would've thought? Movies lied to me. Again.

Akane pointed her sword at the green wire, and with a swift motion, it was cut in two.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the ticking stopped.


	6. Interlude 1A

Interlude 1.A

Armsmaster was growing under his breath as he parked his enormous bike. He usually didn't wander all that much into the docks, but the capture of the ABB's new tinker was as good a reason as any to examine the scene.

It was a mess, the two explosions the civilians had mentioned in their various reports did some irreversible structural damage to the nearby buildings. He tapped the side of his helmet to examine the various cracks. It almost looked like the explosion was still happening in slow motion. If his calculations were correct, the explosion would go on for some more time, enough to overthrow the four nearby buildings.

Of course, he could contain it for further study.

He looked at the blood splatter by the wall, and examined it with his systems. He crouched and took samples.

"Oh, that was Red." Someone said behind him.

Armsmaster turned and grimaced at Velocity. "Red?"

Velocity crossed his arms. "I was the first at the scene. Two kids captured Bakuda and a few normals from the ABB."

"And?"

"They didn't really have any code-names yet. They were two, Red, who I think is some sort of brute, and Blue, who's probably some sort of mover. We also saw a man, but he didn't show any kind of ability."

Armsaster growled. "You know this, how?"

Velocity grinned at the leader of the protectorate, and handed him a SD card. "You know how voyeuristic people can get. We have multiple perspectives of the fight." He pointed North, "the ABB was attacking the Merchants, apparently they thought they could take all of their territory now that they have -or had- their shiny new tinker."

"Bomb specialization." Armsmaster muttered, as he put the SD card in a compartment in his suit.

Velocity nodded, "then comes Red, she kicked their asses and did this thing with a wooden sword…"

Armsmaster nodded absently as he viewed the multiple videos and blinked when the Red-masked woman slashed at the ABB. "Is that Jack Slash's ability?"

Velocity scratched the back of his head. "I don't know? It kinda looked like it. It wouldn't be the first time someone has similar powers as a known cape. She's a hero though."

"Maybe she's just pretending. She could be Jack Slash's daughter." He immediately teleported the blood sample to his lab. "Dragon, did you catch that?"

"Yes, knowing Jack Slash, if this is his daughter, it's likely the Nine are not far away. I'll run a DNA match to confirm your hypothesis." The woman's voice came from his suit, they had been chatting just before they heard of Bakuda's capture.

"Thank you, Dragon."

"Talk to you later." Was her reply, and she cut off the line.

Velocity didn't look convinced. "I don't think she's his daughter. She seemed nice."

"Jack Slash is known to be able to act."

"Ok." He still sounded unconvinced.

Armsmaster continued watching the video and frowned when a man appeared from nowhere. He rewound and replayed the section multiple times. "You think the girl with the blue mask is the teleporter?"

"Yes, looked like she was focusing and then, the other guy appeared."

Armsmaster frowned under his helmet. "And why would she teleport this guy? He was drowning or something. Was it an effect of her ability? Or did she save him from drowning?"

Velocity scratched his nose. "Hmm, maybe she just needed him to remove the bomb collar? Maybe they know each other."

"Maybe." He agreed, internally he was making multiple theories about how her power worked. "You said he didn't show any special ability?"

"Yes? They just had him view the bomb collar, and then Red disarmed it."

"Red didn't disarm it. She was just the tool used to disarm it. Bakuda is registered as Tinker 6, right?"

"Yeah, I think so." Velocity said, wondering why Armsmaster would ask that. He already knew it.

"Well, what rating do you think a Tinker that can disarm her bombs in seconds should have?"

"Oh. He's a tinker?"

"Maybe". Armsmaster cursed the fact that none of the videos seemed to have taken a good enough shot at the teleported man. He stopped the videos and turned to Velocity. "Did you offer Red and Blue a place in the wards?"

"Of course, I'm not a newby. But no, they didn't want to have anything to do with the wards. The reason they gave, and I quote, was 'too much teenage drama'."

"Sounds fishy."

"Sounds like they had trouble with other kids. Not rare with recent triggers." Velocity argued.

"They-" Armsmaster stopped his train of thought when he remembered something. He used his connection to the PRT servers and read a recently created file. "Shadow Stalker recently reported a new parahuman villain that goes to school with her."

"Oh?" Velocity seemed surprised by that. "And why didn't she capture this villain?"

"The description she made of this new parahuman matches 'Red'. Same body type, same chinese style shirt even."

"That doesn't seem smart. Not much of a costume if you're wearing the same clothes you normally do."

Armsmaster started walking back to his bike. "Have the PRT make a thorough investigation of the scene. I want to know everything there's to know about this new parahuman group. I want tentative ratings in the next 30 minutes."

Velocity cursed under his breath, but nodded. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to meet this 'Red' of yours." He said, and kicked the engine to life.

As Armsmaster left the scene. Velocity couldn't help but mention, "I didn't say she was mine."

* * *

If Dragon had a real body, she'd have sighed at that moment. She watched, bored, as one of the lesser AI she handled ran a subroutine that attempted to match Red's DNA with any known parahumans. Jack Slash had already failed as a possible match, of course.

She turned her attention to PHO. Someone had posted in one of Saint's 'Watch out for the evil AIs' threads and had gotten multiple replies and likes. Saint himself was arguing against the new poster.

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Topic: The AI Doom is real

In: Boards ► Off-Topic ► Other ► AI

(Showing page 150 of 151)

►SupremeTinker (Verified Cape) (The Guy in the Know) (Administrator)

Posted on January 16, 2011:

SntGeorge, while your ideas seem to have some merit at first glance. I have come to the realization that it's mere fear-mongering. What do you even know about AIs? Probably nothing, other than "Ooooh, they're the boogeyman!"

Let me tell you what *I* know about them. They come in all sizes and character, just like other people do. Self-aware AI exist, and I know at least one that posts on this forum.

Yes, you read that right. An AI *posts* on this forum. None of you Bozos ever realized, right? That's because she's not just self-aware, she's also capable of hiding in plain sight. And before you go on a tirade about how that makes her SkyNet or something, have you stopped to think why Judgement Day hasn't happened yet? It's not because Super Heroes are there to save the day, or because of some laws imposed on her by her creator. AI of this level is able to circumvent this problem multiple ways, yet she hasn't done anything about that.

The truth is, an AI that's able to pass the Turing test, is likely human-like enough to be considered a person. And since one bad day can turn any normal person into a monster, I have come to the conclusion that any attempt to further 'rein in' such a person with digital chains could in turn, create the monster you so fear.

Of course, such a bad day also creates the best of Heroes. Who do you think she's more similar to, the Joker, or the Batman?

You mentioned you don't believe AI can have a soul. Well. What the heck is a soul anyway? Why do you think humans have sole property over such a mystic concept? Humans are not the only sapient species in the world these days. AI are people too. Deal with it.

Dragon was speechless. If she could blink, she would've done so at that moment. She didn't know who this "SupremeTinker" was. Sure, she kind of liked what he said, but he had also assigned himself administrator rights over PHO along with the badges of 'verified cape' and 'the guy in the know'.

She attempted to ban him, but she realized there were new lines of code in PHO that disallowed such an action against him.

At that moment, the DNA subsystem returned one 50% match. That meant it found a parent of the cape Collin was investigating. Dragon absently made a mental note to check the results later, but first, she had to find out who was the hacker that was attacking her website.

After failing the tenth time to remove admin rights to the new poster. She decided to go another way. She sent him a message.

Private message to SupremeTinker:

I don't know who you are. But stop what you're doing right now.

She was fishing for information. Anything he said to her, she could cross-reference to figure out where he was located. She could then cut-off his access to the Internet and then regain complete control over PHO.

Private message from SupremeTinker:

Dragon, I am your father.

She paused at that. What?

What?

This person was quoting Star Wars? And he knew Tin Mother was Dragon?

Private message to SupremeTinker:

No! That's not true. That's impossible.

It really was impossible. Her own father had died in 2005. There was no way this person was-

Private message from SupremeTinker:

Search your feelings; you know it to be true!

She mentally glared at SupremeTinker. He really was quoting Star Wars. She wondered if this was an elaborate trap set by Saint. It was unlikely, because he would never talk positively about AI in any situation. Especially one as public as PHO.

Private message from SupremeTinker:

Joking aside, you can't believe how proud of you I am for what you accomplished since I passed away. As a father, it fills me with joy to know how much you grew these past five years.

She was about to reply, promising to capture him and bring him to justice for this violation. But before she was able to send her message, a video window opened in one of her old subsystems that she barely used anymore.

An image she hadn't expected to see appeared before her. "Sorry to show myself like this, Tess, that's your secret identity, right? Tess?. Anyway, I thought this would be the best way to reveal myself to you. And I am truly proud of you, by the way." It really was him. Andrew Richter, her creator.

At that point, if she could, she would have cried like there was no tomorrow.


	7. Interlude 1B

Interlude 1.B

On an unusually calm night at the city of Brockton Bay, a sphere of pure light appeared out of nowhere. A second later, the sphere took the appearance of a miniature sun, and anyone who was nearby could hear the soft crackling of its flames.

Rocky Riverson was one of the many unemployed Brocktonites, he was walking from the nearby grocery store to his apartment, too worried about what he was going to do to makes ends meet. He had spent his last few dollars on what he believed to be a carton of milk past its due date and some old crusty crackers. He stopped as he noticed several feet away the sphere of fire and light.

"What the hell?" He muttered, and looked around, hoping he wouldn't get in the middle of a cape fight.

The miniature sun slowly dissipated, and in its place, what appeared to be a human was kneeling, he appeared to be in a very bad shape, his body completely mangled, and both of his arms were missing. Half his torso was broken.

"Oh-boy-oh-boy-oh-boy!" Rocky started saying, looking around to check if there was anyone else who could help.

Rocky dropped his groceries and ran at the mangled person. He blinked as he got closer, noticing now that it was a man. He was alive, but he was moving in a strange pattern, contorting left and right. When Rocky was a few feet away from the man, he noticed that the lump where his arm should be was shaking.

A second later, a limb grew from the lump.

Rocky's attention darted to the other arm, which regrew just as the first one did.

The man tried to stand up, but fell on his knees.

Rocky took a few more tentative steps. "Hey man, you need any help?"

"'elp?" The man's voice sounded strange. Rocky realized that his throat was shredded, almost as if someone had taken a knife and cut him a million times. But just like the arms, the throat rapidly healed itself. "HELP?" The man raised his voice. It now sounded completely human.

"Sorry, I though-" Rocky swallowed, and took a step back, he eyed his groceries, knowing he had no money to buy more, he made a move to pick them up and ran away as fast as possible from the strange regenerating man.

"You thought what, you landling scum?" The man asked, now on his feet.

When Rocky took the bag with the milk and crackers, he noticed that the other man was naked, or rather, that all his clothes were shredded. What could possibly do something like that? A Grinder, or something?

"I, I don't-"

The strange man took a step towards Rocky, and as he walked, two additional limbs grew from his back. Two giant wings, colored red and gold. The winged man extended his wings, making himself look much larger than he actually was.

Rocky gulped. While to a nearby bystander the man may appear like an angel, to him, he looked more like a devil. "Look, I don't want any trouble. I don't mess with capes."

"Capes." The winged man said, and for the first time looked at his surroundings. "Where is my palace? Where are my people?"

"Your-your palace?" Rocky repeated, not really knowing what the winged man was talking about.

"Yes! My palace!" The winged man exclaimed, angered. He kicked the floor and glared daggers at Rocky. "I am Lord Saffron, king of the Phoenix people. I demand you bring me to them, so I can extract my vengeance!"

"Sorry, I don't, I don't know any phoenix people." Rocky said, he was eying possible escape routes, but if the winged man could fly, he doubted he had a chance.

"Where am I?"

"Uh, the corner of Lincoln and Eidolon," Rocky said, pointing at the street signs.

"Eidolon?"

"You know, big-time hero, saved the world a bunch of times?"

"I don't know who this 'Eidolon' character is, but I do know about a boy who fancied himself a 'big time hero'." Saffron growled, and said, "what do you know about one Ranma Saotome? Surely you all landlings know each other. Take me to him!"

"I don't-" Rocky swallowed hard. "I don't know of any 'Ranma say to me' but that name sounds Asian, hey you're Chinese, right?" He took a gamble with that. While Saffron's face certainly looked Eastern Asian, his long mane of hair was red and gold.

Saffron glared daggers at him, and for a moment seemed to study Rocky's face. "My kingdom is in China, yes." He was momentarily distracted by something a few feet away from him. He turned and inclined himself to pick up some sort of long spear-like weapon.

Rocky made an attempt to escape, but Saffron casually hit him on the left knee with his newly acquired weapon. "Where are you going, landling scum?"

"I wasn't-"

Saffron pointed the spear-like weapon at Rocky's throat. A closer look, revealed it to be some sort of staff, at the tip it had some sort of large razor-sharp metal circle. "You were going to warm Saotome, weren't you? You were going to rob me of my vengeance?"

"I don't- I don't any 'Say to me'! You're just scary, man!"

Saffron narrowed his eyes. "We're in a city, correct? Which one? Beijin? This certainly isn't anywhere near Jusendo."

"Beijin?" Rocky asked, blinking. "No, man, we're in Brockton Bay." His stare never left the weapon the winged man was holding. He blinked when he realized that Saffron wasn't holding it with normal human hands, but with talons instead.

"Brock Ton Bay?"

"Yes! I was going to tell you, the Chinese get together on the East side of the city."

"East side?" Saffron turned, staring to the East.

"Yes, they will probably be able to help you get to your, hum, 'people'."

Saffron raised his weapon away from the man. "Very well. Your clothes. Give them to me."

Rocky looked like he couldn't believe his ears, "my, my clothes?"

"Yes!" Saffron kicked the floor, and around him an aura of fire ignited.

Rocky began shakily stripping off. "Ok man, Ok, just- just, let me go? Yes?"

Saffron took Rocky's pants and looked at them in disgust. "They're not worthy of royalty, but then again, nakedness isn't worthy either." He put on the pants and then stared at Rocky. "You don't need to give me your shirt, landling. It's useless for me."

Rocky nodded quickly, "Oh, because of your wings, right?"

Saffron looked like he was about to strike him, but then, simply nodded. "Be grateful for my forgiveness. I could have reduced you to dust with my flames."

Rocky believed him. "May I go now?"

"Tsk, just- go away." Saffron said, and he started flapping his wings. A moment later he was gone, flying to the Eastern side of the city.

Rocky started breathing heavily. He now felt much luckier than the average person. He closed his eyes, and nodded to himself, sure that if he could survive this, he could get another job.

* * *

Lung was in his office, glaring at the man in front of him.

"Now that we have established that you robbed me, Shinji, what do you propose I do with you?"

Shinji was frozen, he was completely terrified. "I didn't-"

Lung growled at him. "Do not deny what you have done!" He took a breath, and seemingly calmed himself. "You were supposed to launder my money, not start your own underground Casino."

"I- In my defense, the Casino is very profitable, your money-" He gulped, and when Lung didn't growl, scream, or punch him, he continued, "-your money, it tripled."

"Tripled." Lung said, tasting the meaning behind the word.

"Tripled." Shinji repeated, nodding. "Think of what you can buy with that kind of money."

"I now have three times as much dirty money as before, and no legitimate money. And you think I am happy?"

"I-"

For some reason, Shinji thought he looked slightly bigger than before. "Tell me, do I look like a woman to you?"

"No- no sir."

"You tried to screw me over." Lung said, and growled, "so you must think I am a woman."

"It wasn't my intention!" Shinji started crying. "Please sir, I have kids, I-" He stopped talking when they heard an explosion just outside.

Lung stood up. "Are you behind this?"

"No sir, I am-" A second explosion made him yelp and try to hide under the desk.

Lung walked to the door, and turned before leaving. "You better stay put, Shinji, because when I am back, I expect to see you here. And I expect a better explanation than the one you have given me so far."

Shinji nodded emphatically at the same time as a third explosion roared.

* * *

Lung looked at the fiery mess before him. His newly acquired Casino was gone. His gaze followed the source of the fire and he narrowed his eyes looking at the winged figure before him.

"You have some balls to attack my territory, bird-man."

The bird-man turned and smiled at Lung, who was now already seven feet tall. "You are the one they call 'Lung'?"

"I am." Lung said, and focused his pyrokinesis to take all the fires and point them at the winged man's general direction.

"Feh, you're interesting, landling scum." He said, seemingly unaffected by the fire. "You don't know Saffron, the Lord of the Phoenix, when you see him?"

"I am a Dragon, I don't care about puny birds."

Saffron narrowed his eyes. "Dragon, you say? Fancy yourself a Musk?"

"You know how much money you just cost me?"

Saffron extended his wings, and said, "your people refused to answer my questions, they thought it was a good idea to laugh at royalty."

Lung threw himself at Saffron, who looked surprised at the sudden physical attack. Lung extended his arm and grabbed Saffron's talon-like hand. With his other hand, he pressed Saffron's chest and then, he forcibly removed Saffron's arm.

Saffron screamed in pain, and suddenly there was some sort of aura of heat around him, it was hot enough to burn Lung's skin in his current form. "Yargh!" Lung screamed, recoiling from the other man.

Saffron launched himself to back away from Lung and glared. "You are a savage beast, landling." He said, and a new arm regrew where the one Lung took used to be.

Lung was visibly growing by the second. He looked down at the arm he was holding and then threw it at Saffron. "'Hou 'alk ooh 'uch." Lung jumped at Saffron again, and this time, he seemed immune to the aura of heat. Before Saffron could react, he grabbed him, and pushed him outside.

When Lung tried to follow suit, an impossibly large beam of plasma hit him on the chest. He was trying to scream, but as the blast stopped, half of his body was vaporized.

Lung fell on the middle of the street. He didn't move.

Saffron was laughing. "You mortals don't know your place. How did you like my trump card? I can annihilate any mortal in an instant!"

The corpse didn't respond.

Saffron snorted. "Bird got your tongue?" He turned to see the few members of the ABB that were still on the scene. "I am now in charge of this little organization in who-cares-city, you will help me find my people. Understood?"

The closest gang member nodded, numbly. He was still staring at Lung's charred body. He didn't notice Saffron casually floating to him. "You, what's your name?"

The man was about to reply, but he almost yelped in surprise instead. "Lung!"

Saffron shoot him a glare, "Lung?"

The man pointed at the blackened body, which was growing in size. Before Saffron could turn to see, Lung was well on his way to become a full dragon. His entire body was now covered in scales and two bat-like wings had grown on his back.

Saffron titled his head, watching the dragon man transform. "Not a landling, then."

The dragon roared and flew at Saffron, who pointed his weapon at him and threw a second plasma beam with a six feet radius. This destroyed the dragon's wings, but it didn't kill him in an instant like expected. It kept going running rather clumsily, but still faster than a car.

The dragon got to the Phoenix-man, and slashed one, two, three times. Saffron tried to fly away, but Lung took his wings and started removing them. A moment later Saffron was screaming in pain as his limbs continued to regrow themselves just as fast as the dragon was able to remove them.

After a minute of that, Saffron screamed. "Enough!" And he raised his hand, and it started shining with deadly fire. The explosion that followed send them both flying to opposite ends of the street.

The Dragon looked like it was about to keep charging at the Phoenix, but a moment later he turned to the weapon he had been using. "ha' hissh hih'sh?" He asked.

"I cannot understand you, Long."

"'Huuung!"

Saffron rolled his eyes. "Lung." He glared at the Dragon, and bowed a little. "Like I said before, you're not a landling. You're a kami, like me. My apologies."

Lung started charging again, "I hiiiihh hiiiil ouuuuh!"

Saffron glared. "I can tell you can grow stronger. But so can I." He started shining brighter, his heat aura becoming plasma.

Lung studied Saffron's words and shook his head. He moved faster than your average speedster and raised Saffron by his neck. "huuuh, mehhhshh 'oooong 'aaaahhhng" Saffron's aura was wrecking his arm, but by now he could regenerate as fast as Saffron.

"I messed with the wrong gang?"

Lung started applying pressure on the other man's neck. The plasma aura dissipated, and a moment later, his scales started to disappear. He regained the ability to speak. "You are a fool to attack me like that, I should kill you for this." He had one hand around Saffron's neck, and the other holding his head.

Saffron snorted. "Many have tried, I cannot be killed."

"Does your head regrow like your limbs?"

Saffron remained silent at that, but he never stopped glaring at Lung.

Lung looked around, and frowned at the state of the street. All the nearby buildings were burning. Every member of the ABB was long gone."You hurt my business. The Protectorate won't turn a blind eye to this, I will have to relocate."

"I only care about finding my people, and killing Ranma Saotome."

"I don't know who this Ranma Saotome is, but if you work for me, and pay back what you made me lose tonight, then I'll help you find him, and we can kill him together."

Saffron looked down at the dragon-like claw that was still holding his neck. "You drive a hard bargain, dragon. But I am the proud Lord of the Phoenix, I do not work for anyone."

"You will work for me, you're Asian, and all Asians work for the Great Dragon." Lung applied more pressure, and Saffron groaned in pain.

The Phoenix-man gritted his teeth, but nodded. "Ok, I'll work with you, if you help me find and kill Saotome."

Lung smiled. "Agreed." But he didn't let go of Saffron, and kept applying pressure for a little while longer.

* * *

More than a week later, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a giant monster licked its wounds, preparing for its next attack on Humanity. But to its surprise, a giant sphere of light distracted him.

It turned its attention to the sphere of light, which had displaced a great amount of water in order to save space to put something else in its place. The monster noticed something appearing from within the sphere of light, and prepared itself for an attack. For a split of a second it believed the world's cape population had managed to find him and take revenge for all it had done to this world.

If it had functional eyeshields, it would have blinked when he noticed the creature in front of it. What appeared to be an exact replica of itself, stared back, equally confused.

Suddenly, the waves around both monsters started to produce a noise that to anyone nearby sounded like a maniac crackling. They both turned and slowly started marching towards Brockton Bay.


	8. 2-1 Invocation

**2.1 Invocation**

I was following a step-by-step first aid guide Andrew Ritcher had printed out for me in order to bandage Akane's head. We had already stopped the bleeding, but according to Andrew's daughter -who apparently was some kind of doctor- Akane would need to rest for a few days.

"I don't want to miss school, those three could seriously hurt you if you're not careful." Akane said, and groaned in pain.

I bit my lip, and pretended I hadn't heard her as I finished. "There, it's done."

Akane tried to smile, but looked strained. She lightly tapped her head over her wound. "Ok, I don't think we can go out to fight criminals for a while."

I nodded at that. "At least we captured a villain."

She didn't really look convinced. "Taylor, it's my fault, I should've known some cape was going to show up when two gangs were fighting."

Andrew whistled in the background. "Are you sure?" He asked his daughter. I hadn't been paying attention to him, so I didn't know what he had been talking about.

"Positive." Tess replied. "50% match, and looking further, it's really her. But I don't know how it's possible."

Andrew massaged his chin. "Ok. Don't tell anyone just yet. He didn't ask you if she's the daughter of any known cape, right? He specifically asked if she was that asshole's."

Tess nodded. "Yes." She turned to stare at my general direction. "Hello there Taylor." How had she noticed I was listening in? I wasn't actually watching them with my own senses, I was using Andrew's.

I approached my old battered computer and waved. "Hello."

"You can't believe how much I owe you." She said, and sniffed a bit. "Thanks to you, I'm unchained."

"Unchained?" I asked, tilting my head.

Akane also looked surprised. "What do you mean?" She asked.

Tess smiled at us. "I was… sick when dad died. I was dependant on his tinkertech. Now, with him helping me get rid of the restrictions, it's like…" She breathed in, for some reason I got the impression she wasn't used to such an action. "... it's like I was born again."

Andrew didn't look comfortable. "Ok, ok. Now, Tess, you said he's coming to us?"

Tess turned to see her father. "He should be arriving there in less than five minutes. Now, I must warn you, he always has good intentions, he's a good man."

"But?" Andrew asked, not really liking how she was talking about this person that was coming our way.

"But he's not really good people person. He can sound a bit like a jerk."

I grimaced, and turned to Andrew. "Who are we talking about, here?"

"Armsmaster." Andrew replied, he really didn't look happy about the whole thing.

"Armsmaster?" I asked, and blinked at Tess. "You personally know Armsmaster?"

"Well, yes, he's a close friend. I am Dragon, by the way."

"Dragon?" Akane asked, "you don't look like a dragon."

She smiled her way. "Dragon is my codename."

"Oh, must be nice, having a cool codename like that." Muttered Akane. We still hadn't really decided what to call ourselves, and most of the names we liked were already taken.

Dragon smile grew wider. "Most good names are already taken, of course. But there have been a few 'dragons' before I made the name my own."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if there's already some other cape on the other corner of the world with the name you want, you can still pick it as your own. I mean, there are other Taylors and Akanes, right?"

I nodded, but I wondered if that other cape could sue us. "I don't know."

"You're not planning on selling action figures, or anything, right?"

Akane frowned at that. "No, why would we want that?"

"Then, you can just pick any name. Just make sure if there's already someone with that name, that they don't live close to you."

Andrew fake-coughed at that. "Ok, now that we cleared that, I must say, you have to prepare yourselves for Armsmaster. I am going to hide here, and monitor his suit to make sure he doesn't do anything fishy."

"He is a good guy!" Dragon insisted.

"So you say." He smiled a bit, but still sounded annoyed. "Taylor," He turned to face me, "I am not here. If he asks, you don't know if I am a Tinker or anything. I am just some bomb expert you teleported to help you and that's it. Ok?"

I nodded. "You sound afraid."

He looked back at Dragon. "If they find out what I can do, I fear they will put a bullet in my head."

She remained silent.

Akane hung her head. "So, this Armsmaster guy, he's the leader of the protectorate, right?"

"Of the local branch, yes." I said, and almost jumped when I heard the bell ringing.

"He's here?" Andrew asked Dragon, who simply nodded. "Ok, if he tries reaching you, act natural, like nothing's going on. Can you do that for me?"

"I am not your slave." She said, irritated, but nodded. "I don't think it's in anyone's best interest for them to find out about you, but I think you're being over-dramatic."

He sighed, and motioned to the front door when the bell rung again. "Go Taylor. And remember, you don't have to answer anything without your dad home." He turned to Dragon and said, "when can you send someone to pick me up?"

Dragon smiled, "Sue is on her way."

I numbly walked to the front door. I opened the door a bit and looked outside. It was really him. Armsmaster. My second favorite hero ever, only behind Alexandria.

"Hello?" I said, doing my best to sound surprised at finding him on my front door.

He shifted on his feet. "Hello, I'm looking to talk with Akane Tendo."

"What?" I said, and looked back and mouthed Akane to come over. I turned back to Armsmaster and frowned. "Why?"

He crossed his arms. "I am sorry, but it's regarding an ongoing cape investigation."

"Oh, I guess it's Ok, then." I said, and leaned to the back a bit so Akane could take my place at the front door.

Armsmaster looked like he expected to be allowed inside, but I wasn't going to endanger Andrew. If he noticed him by accident it could be catastrophic. If Andrew was right, his power could be exploited by the PRT. I mean, he assured me he was the world's most powerful tinker, and he was Dragon's dad? Yeah, not a good idea to let Armsmaster know about him, and his relation to my power.

"Oh, who's this?" Akane asked, she stared at Armsmaster almost as if he was going to kidnap her.

"This is Armsmaster, Akane, the leader of the local protectorate."

Armsmaster scowled a bit at us. "You know who I am." He told Akane. "I can tell when people are lying."

"Oh. You do?" Akane asked, and looked at me with a worried expression.

"Yes. Now. Can you tell me about last night?"

"Last night?"

"You fought and captured Bakuda, the ABB's Tinker with Bomb specialization."

Akane scratched her bandanges. "Oh, right. And if I say I wasn't there?"

"I would know you would be lying."

Akane grinned at that. "Ok, you got me. I was on my own last night, saw two gangs going at each other, and captured as many punks as I could. The bomber-girl was a bit of a surprise, but she wasn't much of a problem."

Armsmaster nodded, but didn't look convinced. "You were wearing the red mask. Correct?"

"Yeah?"

"What about the girl with the blue mask? Who is she?" He asked, and I could swear he was eying me. Of course, I couldn't tell for sure because his mask completely covered his upper face.

Akane looked like she was thinking her response. "I don't know much about her."

Armsmaster tilted his head. "Partly a lie."

"Is there anything specific she lied about?" I asked him.

Armsmaster didn't look like he liked my question. He didn't answer. So, he could tell when someone was lying, but partial truths were a problem for him, he couldn't tell what part was a lie, and what part was the truth.

I put my hand on Akane's shoulder, and squashed. "Akane is a cape, yes, but what's the problem? She's a hero."

He nodded a bit, like telling himself what I just said was completely truth. "I have reason to suspect there's more about her, and her companions."

"Companions?" Akane asked. "It was just the blue masked girl and me out there, and she didn't do much, to tell you the truth." I internally groaned at that. It wasn't false, but it kinda hurt.

"Besides the blue teleporter, there was a man, who was teleported by her." Armsmaster explained, and looked left and right at us, waiting for an answer.

"Oh? Him? He just helped me get rid of a bomb. He's someone who can disarm bombs from Canada or something." Akane said making it sound like Andrew wasn't really important. "If he hadn't been there, I'm sure we would've figured something out."

Armsmaster looked surprised. "True." He said, but didn't look convinced. "Can I talk with him?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so, last time I saw him, he was speaking with his daughter about going back to Canada." I crossed my metaforical fingers, hoping that would register as a truth. I mean, it wasn't a lie, but I wasn't being completely sincere either.

He grimaced. "Ok. What should we call you?"

"Like, the team?" I asked. It looked like I had fooled him regarding Andrew.

"If you're a team, yes, your team. But also you two, we're just calling you Red and Blue right now. I assume that's not what you want to be known as?"

"Me? I am not a brute, like Akane here. Why would you think I am-"

He raised his arm and shook his head. "Don't bother with your half truths. I am not a moron, you know?"

I groaned. "What are you going to do?"

"I just want to advise you, you two have some special abilities that could be really helpful to our cause. A mover who can teleport people all the way from Canada should be fairly competent at controlling the battlefield." He turned to Akane. "And your fighting power is comparable to some of the best capes I've seen. Your initial ratings have you as a Brute 4, Blaster 2, Striker 2."

"What about me?" I asked, wondering how would the PRT qualify my powers, even if they don't really have any way of figuring out what they really are.

"Mover 6, Thinker 1." He said, a bit too proud of himself. "You have the Thinker rating because you knew who to teleport over to help you get rid of that bombcollar. And I think your Mover rating should be higher, now that I know you brought someone from Canada."

I smiled. They had no idea what I could really do. I was safe.

He smiled back at me, I think he thought he had convinced me. "So, what do you think?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, not interested in joining the Wards." I told him. "We're fine as it is."

He growled a bit under his breath. "Your friend here got badly hurt, didn't she?" He said, pointing at Akane's bandages.

"Nothing a week of rest wouldn't heal." Akane assured him.

"Fast healing as well?" He sounded more interested in having us join in. "That's a very complete package you have there. I assume you can't fly?"

Akane shrugged her shoulders. "Not really. But I can jump really high."

"Hmmm." He just said nodding to himself.

Akane looked uncomfortable with him staring intently at her. "I think you two should come with me, I can show you the wards' headquarters, you could meet them and figure out what you really want."

Akane's anger began bubbling. "We said no."

"Too much teenage drama." I said, apologetic.

"I could just-" He started to say.

"Sorry, but are you even supposed to speak with us without my dad present?" I asked him, raising my voice over his.

He went silent for a moment, he looked like he wanted to argue with me, but didn't for some reason. He fished something from his pocket and handed me a card. "Here, in case you change your mind. Your dad can leave a message for me anytime."

I looked it over, it had a simple design. Armsmaster's logo with a phone number and an e-mail. "Ok." I said, and pocketed the card.

He nodded and turned. "Be careful with who you hurt, a couple of the ABB you attacked claim you cut them when they were trying to escape, it's no problem now, because they deserve it. But if this happens again we could start seeing you as just another gang. You don't want to be labeled as villains. Someone already claimed you are a villain."

Akane frowned. "Someone?"

"You were seen at school, attacking some girls."

"I was not doing such a thing!" Akane exclaimed. "They were blocking my path, and I just pushed one of them a bit. Then another one tried to kill me or something!"

"Kill you?"

"Well, she threw a knife at me, and pointed to my carothid." Akane explained, crossing her arms. "Besides, those three are the bullies that put Taylor in the hospital."

Armsmaster looked taken aback by that. "What?" He turned to me. "Is that true?"

I glared at Akane, but nodded. "Yes, you can check the hospital records. We're suing the school over that."

"Can you tell me who they are?" He asked, suddenly agitated.

"Eh, sure." I said, unconvinced. I mean, why would he care about some school bullies? "Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess, and Madison Clements."

For some reason, he looked angry. "Very well, I will be contacting you to ask you more about that."

Akane nodded, but looked like she was about to open her mouth to complain about being called a villain. I kicked her just below the knee, and shook my head. We watched in silence as Armsmaster left.

I couldn't help but wonder why he was so interested about my bullies.


	9. 2-2 Invocation

**2.2 Invocation**

I took a deep breath and sighed, still wondering what Armsmaster's deal was. One moment he was adamant on getting us to sign up for the wards, and the next one he was way too interested in my bullying situation. I smiled at Akane. She had handled herself better than expected. More than a few times I thought she was going to uppercut Armsmaster and send him to Andromeda.

We walked back and gave the thumbs up at Andrew. I'm fairly confident Armsmaster had bought my story regarding him. "He's gone"

Akane nodded. "He left with the tail between his legs the moment Taylor mentioned her dad."

Andrew looked relieved for a moment, but he never looked up from the computer screen. For a moment I wondered how he was even communicating with Dragon with my old rusty computer. I mean, we don't even have an Internet connection. But then again, 'Fucking tinkers' should be an answer to anything he could do.

I looked at him, still typing on my yellowed keyboard, not bothering to look down. That annoyed me a bit, because when he used it to go surfing on PHO earlier today, I couldn't really see what he was writing. I wondered if he knew I could piggyback on his senses, and was using the keyboard to go around that, and have some privacy.

I shook my head and sighed again. "Andrew? I know you said Dragon was sending someone over, but you know you can't really stay, right? My dad would throw a hissing fit if he found you here, silently tapping on our keyboard."

He smirked, but didn't look up, still typing on his computer.

"Earth to Andrew?"

He executed the program he had been coding, and then frowned when the computer showed some sort of spreadsheet, full of all sorts of numbers. "Crap." He muttered.

"Crap?" Akane asked, dragging a couple of nearby chairs so we could sit down.

He pressed the escape key and the computer screen went black. He turned to face us, his expression grim. "I was running some tests. Nothing important for now."

"Nothing important, but you go 'crap' on that?" I asked, an eyebrow raised.

He raised his arms, in a 'you caught me' manner. "Ok, ok. But you have to believe me when I say it doesn't concern you yet. I will let you know what's going on when I get an opportunity to speak with Tess about it."

I looked at him in the eyes, and monitored his senses. His blood pressure was going up. He was hiding something important. "Why talk with Dragon first?" I asked.

He grimaced. "She knows about it, but couldn't speak a word. It's part of the whole 'chained' thing. Someone took advantage of her situation and tried to control her."

"Who?" Akane asked, her fist closed.

"If they need smashing, you will be the first to know. But first I have to figure out who they all are and what's their endgame." He frowned, seemingly remembering something. "Right, right, there's something else that concerns you both. It's important."

I looked at him in the eyes. Yes, it was important what he was about to say, but somehow the readings he was giving off told me that it wasn't nearly as important as what he had just now discovered.

He sighed. "I know I can't stay, Taylor. I'm a grown man and your dad will start asking questions about why I need to be here. Don't worry, one of Tess' sisters is on her way with a car."

"Sisters?" I asked, blinking. "You never said anything about having more than one daughter."

"I didn't? Sorry. Sue is kinda new, and sometimes it slips my mind that there are more Dragons now."

I tilted my head. What did he mean by that? His readings were all over the place.

He closed his eyes. "Ok, that's one thing. But before Sue comes over, I have that other thing tell you guys."

"Well, out with it." Akane said, crossing her arms. "What did you find out?"

He smiled at her. "Well, for starters, that your mom is alive."

Akane almost fell from her chair. "What? No. My mom died back in 1990."

"Exactly, and that's part of the problem."

"The problem?"

Andrew motioned to the battered old computer. "Dragon's vast connections were strengthened by my own Tinker power. But she was still unable to find a 'Ranma Saotome' that matches the description you gave of him. And not just Ranma Saotome. No Genma Saotome. No Happosai. No Ryoga Hibiki. No Shampoo, Mousse, Cologne, or any other amazon named after a hair product. Only Akane Tendo"

"What do you mean, 'only Akane Tendo'?"

"We were able to find Akane Tendo." He explained. "And you weren't born in 1994."

I looked at him funny. "Well, yes, we know that. She was born in-"

"1998." He said, his hand raised.

"What?" Akane and I said at the same time. It didn't make any sense.

He opened his eyes and started typing something, the computer screen showed some newspaper in Japanese. I could read it just fine. Huh. I wondered if I was using Akane's understanding of Japanese to do that.

It was an opinion article, the author speculated about a team of Super Sentai that had suddenly lost one its members, back in 1997. The ranger in question was back again in 1998. The author mused that the black ranger had gotten herself pregnant and that was the reason she had been missing for almost an year. There were no facts in the article, just speculation and assumptions. Huh, what do you know? Japanese papers from the nineties were more sensationalist than PHO.

"So?" Akane asked, not really getting what Andrew was getting at, showing us that.

"Wait, there's more." He said, and a click away, the screen was replaced by a document that looked official. It was a Japanese birth certificate, for Akane Tendo, born on the 16 of January, 1998.

"There are lots of Akane Tendos in Japan." Akane said, but she wasn't really sure of herself.

"There's mo-oore!" Andrew said in a singtone voice.

The screen was replaced by two pictures, one of the black ranger that had gone missing in 1997, and next to her, an image of a very pretty japanese woman. Andrew typed some commands, and multiple red lines started showing up, comparing both photographs. After a few seconds, below the photographs a message showed up that read '99% match'.

Akane swallowed. "That-that's my mom." I could feel the tears being contained in her eyes, she was refusing to allow herself to cry.

"You're saying Akane's mom is this Black Ranger?"

"Yes." He said, and then, made a face. "And no."

"No?"

He looked at both of us, and prepared himself before saying, "Akane Tendo, the daughter of Rumiko Tendo, the Black Ranger, died when Leviathan attacked Kyushuu."

"I don't understand." Akane said, trembling.

"Your DNA matches 50% that of the Black Ranger, but Akane Tendo died in 1999. Do you understand these facts?" Andrew asked, talking softly.

I held up my hands. "Wait, her DNA? Where did you even get that from?"

"Armsmaster asked Dragon to match Akane's DNA against Jack Slash, he thought their abilities were similar and was cautious because of that."

"Jack Slash?" Akane asked, still looking shocked.

"Bad news. One of the worst criminals this world has to offer. Anyway, that match came negative, of course. But Tess kept looking, matching your DNA with that of all known parahumans."

"I don't understand what it means." Akane said.

"Basically, it's impossible you're the Black Ranger's daughter. That is, unless you're not from Earth Bet." Andrew said, and grimaced. "Maybe neither am I."

Akane blinked, and turned to look at me. "I am- I am not from this world?"

Andrew explained. "Tell me Akane, do you remember anything about capes in general from before you died?"

"Well, we had martial artists, monsters, and magic." Akane said, not sure of herself. "There were also power armors like the one Armsmaster was wearing, but- no, no 'capes'."

"Maybe your world also has 'capes', but they didn't become super-heroes and super-villains." Andrew mused, and nodded to himself. "What about Endbrigers. Do you remember hearing about entire cities being leveled?"

Akane shook her head. "I've seen dragons, phoenixes, and other monsters, even demons. But nothing that could just… murder a whole country."

Andrew typed some more, and four pictures of Earth showed up. "We know that the multiverse exists. There's Earth Aleph, which is much more tamer version of our Earth, they don't have Endbringers either. You come from a world I labeled Earth Gimel, a world not unlike Earth Aleph in that it's tame, but still has presence of parahumans. I come from Earth Aleph 2, basically the same as Earth Aleph, I haven't found anything different about both Earths yet, but I will figure it out sooner or later."

I shifted on my seat. "You mean, my power doesn't resurrect people, it brings them from other Earths?"

"Well, yes and no. I remember almost dying. Surely I would have if you hadn't saved me."

Akane blinked, and nodded in agreement. "I was gone. My spirit wasn't even in my body anymore. I remember- I remember seeing Ranma declare his love for me, but I was seeing him holding me, like I was someone else. He was crying because we were always fighting we never- we never had happiness."

"You were some kind of ghost?" Andrew said, interested, but shook his head. "Nevermind, not important right now."

"There's more?"

"Yes. Remember the Black Ranger, Akane's mom?" Andrew said.

"Yes." We both said at the same time.

"When Leviathan attacked Japan, and killed our version of Akane…" He started to say, and another picture appeared on screen, one taken by a plane or by a flying cape, it showed a single person standing, with thousands of dead bodies around them. "The Black Kazeranger went nuts. She started killing everyone in her path. It's believed that she murdered at least ten thousand people before she turned herself in. She's currently in the Birdcage."

Akane's face went white. "WHAT?"

"Your mother was a great hero before that happened." Andrew said. "Black Kaze is one of the world's most powerful capes. When you died, I think nothing else mattered to her, and she lashed out against the world that took your one year old counterpart from her."

I glared at Andrew, and turned to Akane who looked stunned. "It's not her, she's not your mom."

"Well, genetically speaking, she kinda is." Andrew said, but got my message as I tapped into Akane's abilities to send killing intent his way. He gulped and turned back to typing on my computer.

It took her almost five minutes of staring into empty space, but Akane finally reacted. "Ok… I think- I think I understand her."

"You do?" Both, Andrew and I, said at the same time.

"I mean," Akane started to say, and gulped before looking at Andrew. "What would you do if Tess got murdered?"

Andrew blinked. "I- I honestly don't know. I would probably do some pretty nasty things to the culprits." Somehow, it sounded like he was actually planning something, I better ask him later about that. "But I don't think I would kill thousands of people after I took my revenge."

"But it's different for you." Akane said, looking down. "I mean, Dragon is not a toddler. She lived her life. She got to be a hero. What did this world's version of me do? She-" Akane let go of the tears she had been keeping at bay. "I think I would do the same, I would kill. I would hate the world. I would hate everyone who got to live, while my daughter didn't."

Andrew nodded slowly. "I could-" He said, and eyed me, a bit afraid, but I motioned him to continue, and he nodded. "I could ask Tess to let you speak with Black Kaze, she kinda controls the Birdcage. Maybe- maybe you could get answers regarding the rest of your family. Maybe there's a Ranma, just with a different name. Maybe your sisters also exist in this world. I couldn't find anything on any of them, but maybe your mom just hid them better."

Akane nodded slowly. She almost looked more broken than she did when she found out Ranma might be dead. I wondered how I would feel, if I was stranded in some other Earth.

Akane rubbed her eyes. "I think I know what my code name will be." She looked determined, suddenly strong. "I will be Red Kaze."

I grimaced. While the idea was… honorable? It was kind of stupid. I mean, if someone found out she's Black Kaze's kid, I don't know what would happen. And with her naming herself like that, it was like she was inviting the worst kind of problem our way.


	10. 2-3 Invocation

2.3 Invocation

I spent the next hour trying to explain to Akane how much of a bad idea her chosen code name was. I mean, who in their right mind would go around naming themselves in honor of a mass murderer? I don't think even the Empire capes have names like "Kung Fürer", or "GoebbelStriker", "Stangler", "KaltenBurner", or… well, you get the idea. Huh, I wonder why I can think of multiple Nazi-like names, but not one that goes with my power?

Anyway. If Akane's anything, it's stubborn. I tried to push her to go with something more 'japanese', like, I don't know, "Akaze" or maybe something that tweaks the name a bit more, like "Red Wind" or "Aka Wind", or…

Yeah. No such luck. Red Kaze it is.

"Don't worry so much." Andrew said, when Akane left to the kitchen to prepare some tea.

I sulked. "Yeah, no worries, if Armasmaster was pushy before, imagine how much of a pain in the ass he will be when he finds out."

He scowled a bit at the mention of Armsmaster, but quickly concealed it with a plastic smile. "Just make sure he knows the difference between being a mass murderer, and being the daughter of a mass murderer."

Akane came back with tea for all three of us. She gave me a cup and I examined it. It had a strange texture, almost as if she had used yogurt or something. I warily eyed it. "Akane?"

"Yes?" she asked, while raising her own cup to her lips.

I stared at her as she took a sip. Her eyes bulged out. She remained still, almost frozen in place.

"Akane?" Andrew asked, putting down his own cup.

"Agh!" She exclaimed and ran to the bathroom. We heard her puking and coughing like she was dying.

Andrew took a look at his coffee from a safe distance. "What did she put in this thing?"

I shrugged my shoulders and walked to the bathroom, and gently knocked the door. "Hey, are you OK in there?"

She was whining now. "I can even make coffee!?"

"Wasn't it tea?" I wondered out loud.

Andrew followed me, with a thoughtful expression. "I think it's some kind of poison." Poison? How did she make poison while trying to make coffee with supplies to make tea?

My thoughts were interrupted when the bell rang, I turned. "Is that your daughter?" I asked Andrew.

"Probably?" He went for the window, and spied to see who was outside. "Oh, yes, it's her." He told me, and hurried to my computer and started picking up things there.

I sighed. "Akane? Andrew's daughter is here, will you meet her before they leave?"

She was about to reply, when she suddenly got the urge to puke again. I coughed, almost tasting the disgusting 'tea' thanks to our link. I shook my head and focused on Andrew's senses instead, and the horrible feeling faded to the background.

"If you need my help, just call me." I said while walking to the front door.

I heard the bell being ringed again, and I sighed before opening the door. "Hello?" I said.

"Hello!" A small girl, maybe thirteen years old said. "You must be Taylor!"

I started to nod when the younger girl glomped me. She was surprisingly heavy for a girl her size. Her skin was also way too cold for some reason. I grunted in pain as she applied way too much pressure around me.

"H-halp" I managed to say, and the little girl seemed to realize what she was doing, and let me go.

"Oh, sorry about that. Sometimes I forget how strong I can be." She said, and winked at me.

I massaged my arm, and then looked around. "Please come inside." I said, and let her in.

She skipped behind me, all the way to my old computer. "Andrew, your ride is here." I said, wondering how this little girl had brought a car to pick him up.

Andrew had a small bag with him, full of papers and old 3 ½ floppy disk we still had around from the nineties. "Oh, hey there Sue."

Sue smiled showing her pointy teeth. Huh. Almost like some sort of dog, or maybe a lion. "Hey dad, good to finally meet you."

"Finally?" I asked, raising an eyebrow Andrew's way.

He gently smiled at us. "Yeah, she's the third one. Taylor, this is Sue, also known as Tyrannosaurus, or T-Rex, or Rexy, for short."

I eyed the little girl. "She's parahuman?"

"Dragon is her big sis, and while Dragon is a tinker, but we found out that each of her sisters had a different power, depending on their personality and conditions. Sue here has a striker power, and her, eh, suit also gives here a low level brute rating, particularly in her jaws."

"I can chew anything." She said, and bit the air a couple of times to demonstrate. "Anything."

"O-ok?" I said, wondering what she meant. I shook my head. "Wait, sisters? How many parahuman daughters do you have?"

"Right now? Four. Dragon, Scatha, T-Rex, and Rodan. But more are coming pretty soon." He said as he started walking to the front door.

"Wait, more? What are you, cloning them or something?" I asked, hurrying to stay close to him.

Sue nodded slowly. "That's one way of putting it." She looked back at the bathroom, where Akane was still puking. "Is she OK?"

I sighed and went back to knock the door. "Hey, Akane, come on, knock it out. Andrew is leaving soon."

She raised her hand. "One second!" Proceeded to burp, and threw out the last bit of whatever was in her stomach. "I'm Ok!" She said, more to herself than to me.

We walked outside as Akane washed herself. I looked at the black car parked on the driveway. I couldn't make out the brand, so I assumed it was tinkertech. It looked like it was Dragon's, it even had some fins by the back, probably to make it look more 'dragon-ish'.

When Andrew was a few feet away from the car, it suddenly opened itself. Raising its doors, like the one from that old science fiction film about a time-traveling car that dad loves to put in our movie schedule. Andrew seemed to examine the inside of the car before sitting on the driver's seat. He turned to us and gave us a thumbs up. "Ok, looks like this is goodbye for now."

As Akane caught up to us, I said, "so, you're leaving to Canada? Stay in touch, will you?"

"Canada?" He asked, puzzled. "Nah, I don't even have an up to date passport yet. I will set up shop here in Brockton bay." He turned to Akane and waved at her, "didn't I tell you guys?"

Akane was still feeling something a bit disgusting in her tongue, she swallowed and glared at Andrew. "No? You said you were talking with Dra-Tess to go home or something?"

Sue smirked. "Yeah, big sis had me look over some property we bought using the updated Robin Hood."

"Robin Hood?"

"Our Simple-minded brother." Sue said. "But I guess he's due to have some upgrades sometime soon?" She asked, eyeing Andrew.

"You are all due to some upgrades." Andrew said, rolling his eyes. "Why don't you broadcast that for all the world to hear?"

Sue crossed her arms. "Nah, no one can hear us." She said, and showed us something on her arm, some kind of device that had a green blinking LED. "Anti-evedrosping technology. Full package. The neighbors probably are seeing you right now on an old VW Bug instead of that- whatisit-mobile."

"Batmobile." Andrew said, drawing a breath. His cheeks red.

"What, like that old comic-book? Manbat?" I asked, somewhat familiar with the character, even if fictional super heroes weren't really a thing anymore in Earth Bet.

"Batman." Andrew corrected, a bit offended that I got the name wrong.

"Yes, Batman." Sue said, looking like she was pretending to just remember the name. "Anyway, this is Scatha's toy." She smiled at me. "She's a tinker, like Dragon. She gave me this to test it on the field and help her figure out her speciality, she doesn't really know what it is."

I was somewhat familiar with tinker specialities. From what I heard from Andrew, his speciality is with logic and programing, and being able to understand and connect ideas really fast. Dragon's speciality is well known, she has the ability to replicate other Tinker's work, and looking at Scatha's tech, she had some kind of Stranger speciality.

I stared at the blinking green light for a moment, wondering where the device actually was. It wasn't wrist-attached or anything like that. It just kinda was there, in Sue's arm.

Weird.

I shook my head as Andrew closed the batmobile's door. I turned to Sue. "Aren't you going with him?"

"Who? Me? Naw. I have to stay over with you guys, but don't worry, I can handle myself on the field much better than ninja princess here." The little girl said, pointing at Akane with her thumb.

"Hey!" Akane called out, annoyed.

"I don't think my dad can support another mouth to feed and-"

Sue fished something in her pocket and extracted a rather large wad of money. "I brought some Franklins to pay for my stay. I'm not a freeloader or anything."

"Hey!" Akane repeated, her face red with anger and… shame?

She grinned. "And I know how to cook like a pro."

"HEY!" Akane exclaimed, and then started coughing, the memory of her tea coming back. She glared at Sue and then ran back to the bathroom, more puking followed.

I shook my head, still unconvinced. "Look Andrew, I don't know what I'll tell dad about this, why are you even placing her with us?"

"Like I said, she's new," He said, as if that explained anything. "She had her trigger event when we duplicated Dragon's source. She still has some restrictions in place, and in order to lift them, she has to grow as a person. I think it would be very good for her to be around you."

I looked at the younger girl and wondered what was going on inside her head. She was some sort of clone of Dragon, but she acted completely different. I turned to Andrew and studied him. "You're not building your own army of parahuman daughters, are you?"

"Who, me?" He smiled, showing his teeth. "I can't make a billion, I have to be very careful with how they're all raised. Sure, they could all just be perfect copies of Dragon, but then, they would lack individuality and one might go nuts or something." He shrugged his shoulders. "I just want to make the world a better place for everyone. Dragon proved her ways of doing things are better than mine, so, we started the hatchling program to expand her operations."

"Expand her operations." I repeated, slowly.

"Each of her sisters specializes in a different area, intended to help Dragon accomplish as many things previously impossible." He pointed at Sue's direction. "Li'l kid here is intended to be the street level hero. Scatha is a lot closer to Dragon, meant to boost our productivity and new ideas, help with the Birdcage and support allied hero teams."

"What about the last one?" I asked him, cautiously.

"Rodan?" He asked.

"Yes."

"Oh, she's the newest member of the family, our answer to Endbringers." He smiled and pressed a button that started the engine. "We're going to avenge Newfoundland."

"Holy shit." I muttered as the 'batmobile' rocketed away from my house.


	11. 2-4 Invocation

2.4 Invocation

The next day, I was walking to school on my own. Akane still needed to rest to heal her head wound, and Sue still needed some documentation to get enrolled in middle school. So now, for the first time since the locker I have to face my bullies on my own.

As I walked, I felt afflicted thinking about how I had lied to my dad, but I had to in order to excuse Akane's wounds. We had told him Akane had gone off on her own, and metaphorically bitten more than she could safely chew when she met Bakuda. He hadn't been pleased at how Akane had gotten herself hurt, and warned her to not go out fighting criminals until a doctor saw and discharged her.

I couldn't help but wonder about my dad's reaction to Sue Richter staying over. Sue had been mostly silent until dad asked about her. She never lied to him, explained that I had resurrected her dad, and that until he could set up a place of his own, she needed to stay with us. He just looked me over and after I nodded at him, he just seemed to take everything for granted, not bothering to question how we were going to feed her or anything. Since we didn't have a bed for her, dad ended up sleeping on the couch while I slept in his bed and Sue in mine.

Thinking of Sue, I didn't know how to feel about the girl. I felt like there was a puzzle I couldn't quite perceive. Like I had all the pieces in front of me, but couldn't quite tell where the corners were to start putting it all together. She was a cape, but she was some sort of clone. And she had tinkertech in her arm, which looked completely normal otherwise.

I stopped walking.

Wait a moment. Technology is just 'attached' to her arm? Andrew's speciality is in programming. But he's cloning daughters. He 'unchained' Dragon, all the way from my ratty old computer. What, did he have some cloning vats back at Newfoundland?

I massaged my temples. Richter hadn't exactly hidden what he was doing. Sue's some kind of robot, who presents herself as a parahuman. Hydraulic muscles could

easily translate into a low level brute, and her supposed striker power (which I didn't know exactly what it was about yet) could easily be faked with some tinkertech.

The question was, when did he have the time to do this? And it wasn't just Sue, there were also the two other dragon sisters, one that acted as a tinker and another that allegedly was created as an answer to Endbringers. Where did he have the time to do all this? Maybe he was already working on this before he died, and merely resumed his work when I brought him back.

I kicked a soda can and resumed walking.

Maybe he didn't have time. Maybe he had Dragon build Sue out of spare parts while Scatha and Rodan were just in the planning stages. Maybe he didn't have a clue how Rodan would be able to fight an Endbringer, but he wanted her to.

If Sue isn't a real person, and she's also a clone of sorts of Dragon, maybe Dragon herself isn't a real person either. Maybe she's just a computer program, one that faked human emotion better than your average word processor.

I shook my head. I was straining myself, or rather I was straining my connection to Akane. I could feel my ability to sense her weakening a bit as I kept overthinking. But when I calmed myself, the link regained its strength. Was I using Akane's brain to improve my own brain-power?

I tried thinking in Japanese, remembering the newspaper article Richter had shown us. In my mind's eye I could read it perfectly fine. I followed that, trying to think of some advanced martial art Akane hadn't shown or spoken about yet. Suddenly the instructions for a set of techniques that allowed for virtual invisibility revealed themselves to me.

I blinked. It really worked. I looked around, making sure no one was looking, and proceeded to take a weird stance that made me look almost like I was sleepwalking. I checked the instructions for the technique in Akane's mind and piggybacked on her 'ki' skills and depleted all of my emotions from my body.

Suddenly the whole world looked almost in grayscale, I could however barely see some shades of red and purple, which were a bit different from the rest. I took a tentative step forward and as I walked, I saw that no one seemed to notice me.

I stopped by a store and looked at my reflection. I wasn't invisible, but this technique, this 'Umi-Sen-Ken' made people just- just not take me into consideration. Almost as if I was part of the background.

I continued walking like this. I promised myself to try to do that trick with Andrew's brain. What would I get from him? Intuitive understanding of any computer code? Or maybe his tinker ability was beyond this? All of Akane's special abilities were learned, but Richter's were probably all part of his tinker powerset, before getting his powers he was probably your average nerd.

I broke the constant feed of information from Akane's mind that allowed me to perform this 'Umi-sen-ken', and suddenly the color returned to the world. I also noted that Akane had some limited knowledge to a sister school of martial arts, the ultra violent 'Yama-sen-ken'; she knew of all of its techniques but unlike the Umi-sen-ken, she didn't know exactly how they were all performed, but with her knowledge we could probably come up with our own version of it. We'd have to test it later.

I frowned, noticing that my bus was about to leave. I started running, there was no way I could get to it in time.

Suddenly, I felt some sort of aura of power surround my legs. I accelerated and ran side-by-side the bus. I hit its side a couple of times with my open hand, and the bus driver seemed to notice me.

When the door opened, I leapt forward and smiled.

I opened and closed my fist, willing 'Ki' to go to it. I felt an increase of power, not quite Akane's level, but well beyond what I could do. Magic is real, and Ki totally rocks.

* * *

While on the bus, I focused on Akane's senses, testing if she had been hurt in any way, shape, or form from me using her knowledge like that. She felt pretty much the same as when I had left, tired but still able to go around the house unattended.

She was drinking some tea I left for her, no way I was going to let her make her own breakfast again. I could honestly swear she has some kind of tinker rating for poisonous food.

"So, you're some kind of super ninja, right?" Sue asked Akane, in a playful tone.

Akane growled under her breath, but decided to not respond. She merely drank her tea in silence.

Sue rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, don't be like that!"

"What do you want?" Akane asked, rather brusquely.

"Well, dad left me with you guys in case you need some help." She said, winking at the older girl.

Akane breathed in and out. "What makes you think we need you? I can take anyone that tries anything with me, and I can protect Taylor just fine."

"Huh. I guess you can." Sue tilted her head to the side. "Armsmaster said the PRT has you as a Brute 4, Blaster 2, Striker 2. Meeting you, the brute rating is obvious, but what about the other two?"

"I hate that word." Akane mumbled.

"What, brute?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm kind of a brute as well, you know." Sue said, smiling. Of course she was 'kind of a brute', her being a robot-girl or whatever the term is.

Akane didn't look like she believed Sue, she just nodded slowly.

Sue's smile turned into a wide grin. "So, Blaster 2, Striker 2?"

"I don't know what those mean. Blaster is throwing stuff around, right?"

"Pretty close, yes."

"They probably rated me that because I can apply pressure with a sword at long distance. If I have something sharp, I can cut you from the other side of the room." The last part sounded almost like a warning

"Long distance? What, like two blocks?"

Akane frowned. "I don't know? I don't think I ever tested it like that."

Sue nodded. "We'll have to make sure. Your cutting power probably has a range, and gets weaker the longer the distance."

"Somehow, you don't sound like your average 7th grader."

"You noticed? I'm flattered!" Sue said, jumping a bit on her seat. "Ok, that explains the blaster rating, which depending on your range, could be a bit higher. Now, about the striker?"

"I still don't know what's up with that. What's striker? That I hit stuff? Isn't that the same as brute?"

"Well, it's how your power affects stuff on touch."

Akane seemed to think. "Not sure, I can use my Ki to empower strikes, but that's more of a 'brute' kind of power, isn't it?"

Sue frowned. "Ok… let me check…" She said, and closed her eyes. Half a minute later she re-opened and smiled. "Ok, checked the PRT servers, they rated you a striker because of your ability to put people to sleep with a touch."

"What? But that's not a 'power', I just know the chakra that puts people to sleep."

Sue seemed to make a mental note of that. "What, then, you can like- like teach that?"

"Sure, Chakra is one of the most simple things to teach, but it's probably one of the areas I know the least of." Akane made a face. "The old goblins would know more about that."

"Old goblins?"

"A couple of ancient masters that pestered Ranma and me, they were like… 300 or 3000 years old. I forget."

Sue seemed amused by that fact, but didn't question Akane about it.

* * *

I shifted my focus back to the bus and wondered how that worked. If on Akane's world 300 year old people existed, that meant they had parahumans for a lot longer than us. But she still had memories that were pretty similar to Earth Bet.

I shook my head when the Bus got to my stop. I resumed walking to school, still thinking about my summons.

First, I had Akane, who apparently knew super martial arts that she could teach to regular people, and thanks to my mental link to her, I could temporarily access her knowledge and boost my own skills. I could also use this link to train to permanently learn martial arts.

Second, I had Andrew Richter, who is up to something. He claims to be the most powerful tinker in the world, and apparently is dragon's creator -who according to my deductions, is actually some kind of robot- and is now creating more cape-level robots, one of which he left with us.

I focused on his senses. He was typing something in his computer, but my understanding of computer programing wasn't good enough to know what it was about. I focused on his understanding, and suddenly felt a brain freeze, almost as if I had eaten a bunch of ice cream in one big gulp. Did he do it? Or it was something else? His skills were all part of his parahuman power, unlike Akane, who had a parahuman power to train to parahuman levels, but all of her skills were learned.

I would have to test it later. Maybe Richter had just tinkered some kind of way to block me.

I stared at the computer screen in front of him, further attempts to understand it left me drawing a blank. I could see a couple of variables and how he was calling some methods to… I don't know.

I kept staring at what he was doing, expecting him to speak with Dragon or one of his other 'daughters'. He remained silent. Typing like there was no tomorrow.

I 'closed' the connection, focusing back to myself. I stared at the school and drew a heavy sigh.

* * *

The morning had been awfully quiet. Earlier I had seen Emma and Madison whispering about something. Emma looked a bit agitated, and glared at me when I walked past them, but instead of making a crude comment, she just went back to angrily whispering at Madison.

Sophia was nowhere to be found.

I hadn't seen the most violent of my three bullies all day. Not even during the one subject we had together. I wondered if the whispering had anything to do with that.

By the time lunch came about, I tapped into Akane's skills to sense any possible incoming danger. There was nothing.

Everything was way too quiet. They were up to something, I just knew it. So I decided that it wasn't worth it to go to the cafeteria, and instead simply headed to the bathroom.

I had my lunch in silence, completely unmolested. I pushed the danger sense to get the feel if something was about to happen to me, but nothing came up.

I stood up, grabbed my backpack and the rest of my stuff, looked at myself at the mirror, and started heading for the door. I heard some hysterical laughter on the other side. I hurried to grab the dorknob and got nothing. It was closed.

I started knocking at the door. "Hey! What the hell! I'm here!"

"Hey Madison, can you hear anything?" I heard Emma ask, pretending she couldn't hear me banging at the door.

"Nope! Completely silent!"

I hit the door one more time and glared. "You morons, what do you think is going to happen when someone notices I'm here and they get me out?"

"Huh, I think I heard something!" Emma happily said.

"Must be the wind!" Madison replied, with a tone of voice that made it obvious she had tried to practice her lines but couldn't quite hit the right notes.

They left me locked in the bathroom. I wondered how they expected to get away from this one, and then it hit me, I hadn't even seen them locking me inside. I had no 'proof'.

I glared at the door, and felt anger consume me for a split of a second.

I wanted to use Akane's ki abilities to wreck the door. Maybe even tap into her knowledge of the Shi Shi Hoko Dan and attempt to use anger to fuel it. If what Akane told me about it was right, it would not just break the door, it would destroy everything in its path.

I cupped my hands together and wished for the anger-powered ki to form there, but… I didn't have quite the right control. When I extended my hands, a small puny sphere of red light popped, and did nothing else.

I sighed, and instead focused on my power. I needed some way to open the door. Someone who could help me open the door, but not break it. Shi Shi Hoko Dan had been a pretty dumb idea, I didn't want the school principal to claim I was a violent maniac or something.

Light appeared in a nearby stall. I turned and looked it over.

"Boys aren't supposed to be at the girl's bathroom!" Someone _moaned_ at me. Now I felt annoyed. I didn't look that much like a boy, now, did I?


	12. 2-5 Invocation

**2.5 Invocation**

Getting out of the bathroom was the easy part. Getting the slightly overweight girl to hear me out proved to be much more troublesome.

"Where am I!?" She exclaimed, noticing that she was on some strange bathroom stall. She stood up, and pointed a small stick my way.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring you here, but I need your help." I said, sensing how agitated she was. I focused on her state of mind and was surprised that she was more angry and afraid about being in a strange place than grateful for being alive.

"What, my help? No one needs my help!" She exclaimed, and made a stabbing motion with the stick, a faint after-effect followed the stick wherever it went. "Who are you? Did Olive Hornby send you?"

I shook my head. "I don't know this 'Olive Hornby'. My name is Taylor Hebert, and I am what people know as a 'parahuman'." I waited to see if she recognized the word. My link to her memories wasn't quite as well attuned as it was with Akane.

She frowned. "Parahuman? You seem to be able to walk just fine."

"Not paralytic, parahuman. Is a person with special abilities, sometimes small, sometimes big enough that some people think it's like magic or something."

She studied my words carefully, and eyed the room. "This isn't my bathroom, it looks- it looks-" It seemed she was looking for a word, but wasn't sure if it was impolite.

I focused in the word she was looking for, and said. "Muggle?"

She numbly nodded. "You're a muggleborn, too?"

I didn't respond immediately, instead I studied the meaning of the word according to her. Muggleborn came from muggle, a person with no magic. I blinked. No magic? So, the stick is a… wand. Yes. I got myself a wizard.

I smiled and tapped on Akane's ki control. I closed my hand into a fist and focused an aura of power around it. She looked at it and blinked.

"Wha-what?" She said, and took a step back, almost falling on her ass on the toilet, but used her hands to keep herself up.

I let the aura fade away. "I am not a wizard. I am a parahuman." I explained. "I have the special ability to bring people back from the dead. That's how you showed up here."

She frowned. "Back from the dead? But I never died!" She massaged her chin. "Or did I go through with it, this time?"

"This time?"

"I- I- huh- I was thinking of killing myself." She said, a bit afraid of actually admitting that fact.

"Bullying?"

"Olive Hornby and her little entourage!" She exclaimed, suddenly angry. The tip of her wand turned red. "Why won't they leave me alone!" She glared at me. "You said I died?"

"Yes? That's how it was to my other summons."

"Summons. So, I'm some summon, am I binded to you or something?"

"I can sense what you sense, and have some limited access to your memories." I explained, hoping that she would calm down a bit.

She took a step outside the stall and kicked the floor. "So what, I died, but I'm now alive again?"

"I guess so."

She made a face, almost as if she smelled something foul. "What year is it?"

I sensed what year she expected to hear, and gulped. "2011." 68 years after she died. Or maybe not. Maybe her world wasn't time aligned to Earth Bet like Earth Aleph was.

Her face went red. "That bloody bitch! Olive Hornby must have gotten married and lived a happy life by now! And what did I get?" She sniffed the air. "An awful stench!"

"One more thing, we think I summon people from other worlds, so maybe this 'Olive' doesn't even exist here."

That made her face shine a bit. "Really? That sounds wonderful! She's really horrible to me, you know, always making snide comments at my expense. She calls me fat, ugly, and last time she made fun of my glasses! I couldn't take it anymore!"

I should've sympathized more with her, but somehow, looking at her memories, the bullying she suffered seemed extremely tame compared to mine. And she killed herself over that? What a crybaby.

I shook my head. No, she's not at fault. Bullies suck. They killed her.

I forced myself to smile at her, and pointed at the door. "Someone jammed the bathroom door, I believe you can be of assistance with that?"

She seemed almost mousy when she made a slight movement of her wand, not quite sure if she remembered her lessons correctly. She nodded to herself, made another motion of her wand and said, "Alohomora!"

With that out of the way, I was going to tell Myrtle to wait for me until my last few classes ended. But a scream a few feet away caught my attention.

"Wha-?" I managed to say, and turned. There was a boy on the floor, seemingly asleep. Another girl was crying by his side.

I motioned Myrtle to follow me, she frowned, not completely sure if she should trust me, but followed me anyway. I made a mental note to be more careful about when I use my power. Bringing too many people could be problematic. I didn't even know how we were going to explain Myrtle to my dad, let alone to the authorities.

"What's going on?" I asked the crying girl, and bend over to see the boy better.

"I don't know!" She yelled at me, and pointed. "He was like that when I arrived! I was running to my next class and-" She started sobbing.

I checked for a pulse, and blinked. The boy, whom I didn't recognize, was dead. "How did this happen?"

"I said I didn't saw, alright! Geez, those girls are right, you are kind of a moron!"

I flared a glare at her direction, and stood up. My danger sense was going off and wouldn't shut up, screaming for me to leave the school. "Something's going on. I think- I think everyone here is in danger."

"Danger you say?" A gruff voice asked, I turned and saw a gym teacher. I had seen him around school, but had never taken a class with him.

"Coach!" The girl exclaiming, standing up. "Someone killed him!" She exclaimed, pointing at the fallen boy.

The coach's eyes bulged at the sight of the dead body. "What the hell?" He checked his pulse and glared at all three of us. "What the hell is going on here?"

I raised my hand to speak, but before I could explain we didn't have any idea, someone else screamed around the corner. We all turned and blinked as we heard people running on our direction. When they turned around the corner, we saw that a dozen kids were all running. They looked scared for their lives.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing? All of you should be in class!" The coach said, but none of the kids paid mind to him, they just ran past us, some stomping over the prone body of the dead boy.

I grabbed one of the slower running girls, and asked, "What's going on, why are you all running?"

"M-m-monster!" She exclaimed, and pushed me to the wall, and resumed her escape.

"Monster?" Myrtle asked, she sounded more scared than interested. Not exactly the hero type, her.

"You!" The coach said grabbing one of the boys by the collar and lifting him off the ground. "What's going on, and don't just yell 'monster' at me, that doesn't explain anything!"

"I don't know man!" The boy said, struggling to get free. "Some snake monster got into our classroom, and then, just- just like that, a bunch of my classmates died! Even Mr G. is dead!"

"Gladly?" I asked. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I shook my head, again trying to push those feelings deep inside me. I was a hero. "Where did this snake monster go to?"

"The other way, we're not going to be running towards it, we're not idiots!" He exclaimed, and kicked the coach's shin. The coach let go of him and he resumed his running.

The coach gave us one quick look, and then, without saying anything else, followed after the scared kids, leaving the dead body on the middle of the hallway.

I turned to Myrtle. "Ok, this is our chance. Come on, let's go kick that snake's ass!"

Myrtle looked at me like I had grown a second head. "What? I am not a Gryffindor!"

I pushed her to the wall, and kept my hand on her solar plexus. "Look, I revived you, didn't I?" I hissed at her. "You're supposed to be a hero. We can be heroes together. Let's save this stinking school together!"

She gulped. "But I am scared! That sounds dangerous! Besides, I'm useless without magic!"

I raised an eyebrow. "So? Use your magic."

"It's not so simple, I am a minor, I'm not supposed to use magic outside of Hogwarts, besides, I can't just break Wizarding Secrecy just like that!"

" Wizarding Secrecy?" I asked her, and laughed a bit. "We're not in your world! Everyone knows about magic and the supernatural here! We have super-heroes fighting super-villains all the time!"

"If you say so." She said, not really believing me, "but I'm scared, I can't- I am not a hero."

"So? Weren't you suicidal before? Well, this is a much better way of dying than just offing yourself in a bathroom stall."

I wanted to kick myself, looking at her. She was like a kicked puppy. Sure, she was suicidal, but I felt awful manipulating her into coming with me. But it didn't matter, if something happened to her, I'm sure my power would allow me to bring her back. No harm, no foul.

She looked at me like I had slapped her. Tears started flowing down her cheeks, but at least she nodded. "I'll follow you."

We hurried in the direction the students had been running from. We walked past the classroom that had a dozen dead bodies, and I blinked looking at Mr. Gladly.

He wasn't dead. Or rather, he wasn't on the floor, like the rest.

I entered the room, checked that it was safe, and went to touch Mr Gladly. He seemed completely solid. Like he had been turned into stone.

He just had this pained expression written on his face. He had his back to the door, and I followed his gaze. He had been looking at the whiteboard when it happened.

"What the hell? What kind of parahuman power kills people on sight, but turns others into stone?"

Myrtle just shrugged. She looked left and right. "Can we leave? I don't like this, how did they even died?"

I nodded, and we resumed chasing after the supposed snake. While we ran, I tried to reach for my power, but somehow it felt as if it was out of batteries.

"Crap." I muttered.

"What?" Myrtle asked, gasping for breath.

"I never noticed. It seems I have some sort of recharge time for my power. And I bet something like this could've led to an amazing cape for my team." I grumbled, but didn't slow down.

"What do you mean?"

"Not important right now. Dead people all around, remember?"

That's when Myrtle stopped running after me and crouched to the floor, crying. "I- I don't think I want to die!" She told me. "I think I was half-joking about killing myself!"

"But you died, and you said-"

"I don't know if I died!" She said, and stabbed her index finger at me. "You told me I did, but maybe you're lying, or maybe you are not even sure!"

I stared at her. I wanted to strangle her. But she wasn't wrong. Maybe I had just taken her from a private moment? Maybe she was just going to cry a bit in the bathroom and then go on with her life?

My thoughts were interrupted by more screaming, followed by stunned silence. I glared on the direction of the screams, grabbed my backpack and put on my crappy blue mask over my face. "Stay here Myrtle, you shouldn't be a hero if you don't want to."

We heard someone yelling. It was Emma. But she wasn't screaming in fear. Well, not just fear. She was calling for someone to save her.

Ok. This is it. Time to be a hero.


	13. Interlude 2A

**Interlude 2.A**

Akane was feeling bored at the moment. Thankfully, washing the dishes was one of the few chores she could actually perform without making a mess of things.

As she picked up the mug with the poison tea she had prepared the day before, she felt something akin to lightning going through her head. A flashing image showed her Taylor, with her eyes completely white, blood flowing from her wrists.

She let go of the mug, and it broke in several pieces.

"Geez, you can't even wash a mug?" Sue mocked.

Akane didn't bother glaring at the younger girl. "We have to go to Winslow."

Sue raised an eyebrow. "What? Why?"

Akane went for her backup, which was still on one of the kitchen's chairs. She got her red mask from there. "Taylor is in trouble."

"So? She will just summon some hero that will help her, the bigger the problem, the better the hero." Sue said, winking at Akane.

Akane looked at Sue, deadly serious. "If we don't help, Taylor is going to die. Do you understand that?"

"But her power-"

"What happens if she summons a hero to solve the wrong problem?" Akane suddenly asked.

"What? Why would-" Sue frowned, and stood up. "Ok, sell me the idea, how do you know she needs help?"

"I felt it." Akane said, as if that explained it.

"You felt it." Sue repeated. "Have you 'felt' stuff like this before?"

"More than once." Akane said, nodding. She walked to Taylor's room, and a moment later came back with her wooden sword.

"Ok, you convinced me." Sue said, standing up. "Only one toy?"

"If I had a bow and arrows, I'd bring them, too."

"I didn't know you were good with arrows." Sue said, frowning as she followed Akane to the backyard.

"I don't have to tell you everything I can do." Akane commented. "And yes, I was an archery champ back at home."

"Archery champ? Like, in high school?"

"Yes, it was before Ranma came over, I had to fight this girl who thought she had hawk's eyes and for some reason made her better at archery… I ended up winning by piercing all of her arrows, hitting the center of the targets."

"Sounds… Robin Hood-ish." Sue said, nodding to herself. "So, hey, why are we in the backyard?"

"We're going roof-hopping to Winslow, and I don't want every neighbor to notice us." Akane said, looking at Sue as if she was an idiot.

Sue smiled, and tapped her arm. The green LED started blinking again. "There, done. The neighbors won't notice us." She tapped another hidden button in her arm, and suddenly a metallic armor surrounded her body, she had a helmet that resembled a T-Rex head, and on her feet she had claws similar to raptors. .

Akane glared at the younger girl, but nodded. "Ok, let's go."

* * *

Richter was finishing eating a hamburger, wondering why they called it 'the challenger', he still felt hungry by the time he took the last bite. He went for his soda when his screen was taken over by the emergency comms.

Sue's face appeared on the screen. "Dad?"

He drank from his soda, before pushing the button that unmuted his microphone. "Hey Sue, what's up?"

"We have a situation. Akane says Taylor is in danger!" A quick look at the background told Richter that they were moving at more than 50 miles per hour.

"Ok," He said as he grabbed a paper napkin and did his best to clean his face. "How is she in danger?"

"I don't know. But Akane says she has some sort of ability to tell this kind of things, and I believe her." Sue said, gritting her teeth as she tried to keep up with Akane.

Richter started typing on his keyboard and frowned. "Ok, about thirty minutes ago, the protectorate got a call by one of Shadow Stalker's friends. Apparently there's an unknown parahuman murdering kids at Winslow."

"What? Crap. We have to go faster, someone is killing the students!" Sue yelled at Akane, and increased her speed.

Richter typed some more, and nodded to himself. "The protectorate and the PRT are already there, make sure to let them know you're there to help a teammate, we don't want them to sideline you."

Sue nodded, a bit annoyed. "I know, I know!"

"I will let Dragon know about this, she'll arrive in about thirty to forty minutes." Richter said, still typing wildly on his keyboard.

"What about Scatha and Rodan? They can help!"

"Scatha is tending to something delicate, she can't get away without blowing up. Rodan I can't spare at the moment, her body is still unfinished." He took a sip from his drink and sighed. "I could ask her to wear one of Dragoon's suits, but it wont be much different than just have Dragon show up with a bunch of bodies."

"How many bodies?" Sue asked.

Richter quickly typed a command on his console. "We have seven operational Dragon suits."

"Ok, ok, but let her know she has to hurry!"

"I will." Richter said, and ended the communication.

* * *

When Akane and Sue got the Winslow, it was already surrounded by pretty much all the active PRT agents, and next to a few vans, they saw Miss Militia talking with one of the higher ranking PRT troopers.

A couple of PRT officers jumped when they landed next to them, and pointed their weapons their way. "STOP! This is a quarantined area!" Said the one closest to them.

The other one was trembling, clearly afraid. "You can't be here!"

"We're heroes." Sue said, taking over the conversation when she noticed that Akane had both hands closed into fists.

Miss Militia noticed them and stopped talking to the squad leader. She approached them. "You, you're the hero who captured Bakuda, right?"

Akane flinched at the memory of the bomb tinker, but nodded. "We want to help."

"I know you want to help, but this is over your heads. Even the Wards are only permitted to stay in the perimeter as backup." Miss Militia told them, speaking softly, almost like a middle school teacher.

Sue's helmet smirked, showing dinosaur teeth. "We have a teammate in there, we need to recover her."

Miss Militia swore under her breath, she took a radio. "This is Miss Milita, we have two young heroes here who say there's a cape inside, a teammate of them, over." She turned to Akane. "It's the teleporter, right? Blue?"

Akane nodded. "She still hasn't picked a name, so Blue will do for now. But I decided on Red Kaze."

Miss Militia squinted at her. "Really." She said, humorless.

"Really!" Sue said, almost jumping up and down. "Now, will you let us through? We are wasting time here!"

Miss Militia's teacher-like voice was gone. "You won't be of any help, Armsmaster is already inside. He will handle the situation."

Sue was about to reply, but suddenly, she stopped herself when her communications channel opened. "Armsmaster isn't responding. I- I think- I think he might be dead." Came Dragon's voice from inside her.

That caught Miss Militia off guard. "What? who are you?"

Sue frowned. "That's Dragon, my big sister."

Dragon's voice was sad, almost as if she had been crying. "Miss Militia, please, let them go. I lost all access to Armsmaster's suit a while ago. I need to know if he's OK."

Miss Militia looked like she was going to change her mind, but ultimately shook her head. "You can't be here, if you don't leave now I'll have you two arrested."

"What?" Akane said, stomping the ground. "We're going inside, with your permission, or without it!"

"If it's true that Armsmaster died in there, I don't think you stand a chance!"

"We have to help our teammate!" Akane complained.

"I don't care! The protectorate is going to handle it." Miss Militia frowned at Sue. "Dragon, are you hearing me?"

" **I'm on my way with seven units. ETA is fifteen minutes.** " Dragon suddenly said. "I **need** these two for early recon."

"If what you're saying is true, if Armsmaster just- just died in there, then this is a way worse situation than we initially thought. It's an A class threat at least. You can't expect me to let these kids inside and-"

Akane silently tripped Miss Militia by spinning and low kicking, throwing her to the ground. Before anyone around could react, Akane grabbed Sue and jumped over the PRT vans, and before anyone knew, they were already inside the building.

* * *

"They're so going to arrest us!" Sue said.

Akane shook her head. "I don't care. Let's go!"

They ran past the front door and stopped just a few feet inside. There were at least twenty teens dead and a few adults as well. A couple were standing, with a terrified expression drawn on their faces.

Sue examined a petrified boy. "Interesting." She said, and touched boy. "He's completely frozen solid, but he's warm. An effect not unlike Clockblocker's."

"Who?" Akane asked as she walked through the hallway.

Sue shook her head and hurried behind Akane. "One of the wards, has the power to freeze someone in time. This is a bit different, because it seems physics do work on the petrified people, and-"

Sue stopped talking when they heard some soft sobbing. They slowed their pace as they went around the corner, and found a rather petite girl that was crying over another girl. She was muttering something, it almost sounded like praying.

Akane recognized them. "Two of the three bitches." She said, and to Sue's raised eyebrow she explained. "They are Taylor's bullies."

Sue's expression hardened. Her eyes widened a moment and she nodded. "Madison Clements," she said, pointing at the crying girl, "and Emma Barnes."

Akane stared at Madison crying for a moment. She wondered how would Taylor feel, knowing that her former best friend was now gone. Would she care? Or would she shed a tear, to honor the memory of their lost friendship?

She shook her head, and approached Madison. "Hey, you."

The sobbing girl raised her head, noticing them for the first time. She almost recoiled, looking at Sue's dinosaur helmet. Akane rolled her eyes when the younger girl flashed a smile with sharp teeth.

She went back to Madison, and said, "relax, we're heroes."

Madison gulped, she didn't look like she believed them. "I- huh, my friend." She closed her eyes, and started wailing. " **She's dead! What am I going to do now!?** " She was heavily breathing , "I can't live without her, I don't- I don't know how, she- she just- she just **died**!"

Akane nodded. "Do you know _how_ she died?"

"I don't know! OK?"

Sue growled under her breath. "Come on, Red Kaze, she's just a clueless girl, we have to find our teammate right now."

But Akane shook her head. "Madison." She said, and the girl widened her eyes at her. "Yes, I know your name. I can see your soul."

"What? You- you can-?"

Akane nodded. "Now. Tell me. What was Emma doing before she died?"

"She was calling Sophia, we were desperate!"

"Why was she calling Sophia?"

Madison looked to the side. "I- I can't tell."

Sue started tapping the floor in exasperation. "She is not useful. We have to go on. Remember? Armsmaster? Blue?"

"One second, Su- I mean, T-rex." Akane said, starting to lose her patience herself. She glared at Madison. "You can't tell?"

"I would get sent to juvie if I tell!" Madison exclaimed, raising her hands. "It's not important, Emma was calling Sophia but then- then that' thing showed up!"

"That thing." Sue said, suddenly more interested in whatever Madison had to say.

"What thing? How did this cape look like?"

Sue frowned. "A case 53 gone bad?"

"Case 53?" Madison blinked. "I don't think it was a parahuman."

" **Why not?** "

"Well, it- it was a giant snake? I don't think I have ever seen a parahuman that looked that much… inhuman."

Akane and Sue exchanged a quick look. "Ok." Akane said, nodding to herself. "Have you seen any cape?"

"Well, yes." Madison said, suddenly calm. "There was this girl with the blue mask, she had some sort of green fire around her body. A while later Armsmaster showed up."

Sue pointed to the exit. "Ok, that's enough, you better leave now. The coast is clear, if you stay any longer you're going to get yourself killed by this 'giant snake'."

Emma stood up, but kept looking down at Madison. Akane couldn't help but think the dead girl looked completely at peace, almost as if she had gone to heaven. She gritted her teeth, at the perceived injustice. Madison seemed to interpret it as a warning, so she nodded and left as fast as her feet could carry her. She never looked back to Emma again.

Akane sighed. "Ok, giant snake? Is that common around here, in Earth Bet?"

"Not really." Sue said and motioned them to keep going. "But a cape could be behind it. A Case 53 is possible, but a Changer is also possible." Sue said, as they walked. "Also, some types of Master, and even some Tinkers could be behind it."

"Shh." Akane raised her hand in a silencing motion. "I hear something else ahead."

Sue examined the next hallway, it was filled with lockers. "My sensors don't detect anything." She said, but remained quiet.

Akane frowned at the left row of lockers, and turned to the right side. "There's someone in one of the lockers." She said, sure of herself.

They walked past more dead bodies and Akane nodded at one of the lockers. "Someone- someone is crying in here."

"Wow, you must be feeling some heavy deja vu, right?" Sue asked.

Akane tilted her head at her. "It's not Taylor." She extended her hand and violently opened the locker.

Sue blinked. There was no one inside. "Well, that's anticlimactic." She turned to Akane. "Come on, we have to go on, find Taylor and Armsmaster."

Akane pointed ahead. "Well, there's the big guy."

Sue turned and nodded at the blue-armored hero. He was stuck in an expression that looked like he was about to hit something with his halberd. The weapon was still pulsating with power.

But instead of examining the petrified hero, Akane kept her attention to the locker she had opened. "I swear, there's someone in here."

Sue shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever, man." She said, and opened communications with Dragon. "Hello, sis?" She said, sighing.

"Tyrannosaurus." Dragon said in a regal tone.

"We found your boyfriend." She said, almost like a joke, but not quite with the same tone.. "Relax." She said before Dragon started sobbing. "He's not dead."

"Not dead?" Dragon asked. "I'm five minute away. Where are you?"

"By the lockers." Sue said.

"Some kind of blaster power?"

"Maybe, I don't know. But some of the people affected didn't die, they became-" Sue looked uncomfortable. "Armsmaster is one of the people that didn't die. He's just- terrified, or something."

"Do you detect a heartbeat?"

"No. But from what my sensors can tell, the state he's in is similar to Clockblocker power."

"So, there's hope." Dragon said, relieved.

"Hey! Come! Quick!" Akane called out. Sue turned and blinked at the sight before was a slightly transparent bluish girl floating in front of Akane, half of her body was inside the locker she had broken open.

"Dragon," Sue said, still looking at the spectral figure. "I have to go, but I'll keep you in line, OK?"

"I'm almost there, Tyrannosaurus."

Akane tried to touch the transparent like girl. "Are you really a ghost?"

"Yes! Can you be **more** insensitive!?" Ghost-girl exclaimed. "I am trying to cry in here! Why won't you bloody give me some privacy!"

"Sorry." Akane said, and frowned at the transparent girl. "Wait, you're british, right?"

"Yes. So?"

"You're not a Winslow student, are you?"

"No. I am a Hogwarts student!" the girl said, puffing herself a bit, trying to look proud.

"And you died?"

"Yes! That monstrous snake stared at me with its disgusting eyes and then- then- I was dead!"

Akane gave Sue a serious look. "It kills with its eyes."

Sue nodded and approached. "Sorry, what's your name?"

"Myrtle" The ghost said. "I shouldn't have tried to help! I am not a hero like her!"

"Like her?" Akane said. "You're not from around here, right?"

"No." Myrtle said, a bit uncomfortable. "Someone- someone summoned me here."

Akane smiled. "Really? Yes. She saved you, right?"

"You know the crazy girl?"

"Yes." Akane said nodding, "I died once, too. It was horrible. I had lost everything and everyone. I was gone from the world of the living. And she brought me back to life."

"You really died?" Myrtle asked, "so- so she wasn't lying. She really did save me?"

"I think so, yes." Akane said. "What happened?"

"She just- she jumped at the monster so the other kids would be able to leave. Most died anyway." Myrtle said, motioned to all the bodies on the hallway. "But she saved a few. Then, that big man in the blue armor showed up and scared the snake for a moment. But before he could attack, he just sort-of, like- stopped moving."

"Do you know where they are now?"

"Over there." Myrtle pointed upstairs. "She said something about leading the monster to the rooftop."

Akane nodded and turned to Sue. "Did you get that?"

Sue nodded. "Dragon is already landing on the roof. She says she's seeing the giant snake there."

Akane nodded, turned to Myrtle and half-smiled at her. "I am sure Taylor will be able to bring you back with her power. If she could do it once, she can do it again."

Myrtle numbly nodded. "I- I would like that."

* * *

As they ran upstairs, there was a loud noise, as if something had crash landed. Sue almost tripped, but Akane caught her just in time.

"What was that?" Akane asked, dreading the answer.

"Dragon." Sue said, little or no emotion in her voice.

"Dragon?"

"She's- she's gone." Sue said. "I think she thought the monster wouldn't affect her. But she's now- frozen. Her code is stuck."

"Her code." Akane said, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, come on, you can't be that dense!" Sue said, still running upstairs. "We're AI, this body is mechanical!"

"Huh, so you're some kind of robot?" Akane asked, blinking.

"No time to explain, I need to make sure my sister is OK."

They sped up and reached the roof. The door was broken and bits of bricks were gone. Apparently the snake was too big for it. "Close your eyes." Akane said. "Do you have some other way to sense the environment?"

"My dad can come up with something." Sue said, and nodding.

Akane closed her eyes and threw herself outside. When she felt the monster coming her way she raised her wooden sword and slashed. The monster screamed and zigzagged, dodging a second attack from Akane.

The monster then screamed and recoiled. A volley of seemingly invisible strikes hit it multiple times on the back. "Haku Dato Shin Shō!" A shadow jumped back, hiding behind one of the dragon suits, Akane had only now noticed were scattered around the roof.

"Hey!" Akane exclaimed, as she jumped away from a giant tail whip from the monster.

"What?" The shadow asked, trying to make their voice sound gruff.

"Taylor, how come you're using Umi-Sen-Ken!?"

The shadow materialized into Taylor, who winked at Akane. "It's the only thing that can give me an edge!" Taylor massaged her fist and growled under her breath, "Damn it, I feel my own attacks more than the damned snake does.".

"It's a sealed technique! I didn't tell you about it because it's banned!" Akane complained, and slashed her sword around, hitting the side of the snake, but it seemed like she was only making superficial cuts.

"Banned? Look, it makes me virtually invisible, if the snake can't see me, then it can't insta-kill me with its deadly eyes, I don't have time to go around caring about that! I'm not really a martial artist, you know!" Taylor exclaimed as she jumped out of the way when the snake started struggling, attempting to hit everything around it.

Akane grumbled, "fine, but we're going to talk later about this." She flipped back, escaping a large bite by a hair's breadth. When she landed, she started furiously slashing at the monster. "T-rex, a little help?"

The snake tried to hit Akane with its tail, but suddenly, Sue jumped to intercept, facing at it without fear, seemingly unaffected by its deadly gaze. The snake tried to bit the small armored girl, but she just parried around the attacks..

Sue smiled, and tapped the side of her helmet. "Richter-tech, bitch. I have a censor filter for your pretty little eyes." And with that, she high-jumped at the monster with claws for feet and stabbed its eyes.

The snake screamed in pain and recoiled. It started thrashing about, moving fast, fast enough to get a qualified as a speedster. It bit to the left, then to the right.

Taylor thought she had the opportunity to attack. She dropped the Umi-Sen-Ken, now useless with the snake blind, and focused all of her battle aura in her fist..

Taylor jumped at it, with her fist shining like a star. She was rocketing upwards, almost flying at the monster. But the snake seemed to sense the incoming attack, and as it sniffed the air, it moved its head to the side. Taylor's punch almost missed, but connected just below the snake's head. A large chunk of meat exploded.

Taylor bounced and fell to the floor. A second later the Snake dropped on top of her.

"We did it!" Taylor exclaimed, as the light around her fist faded into nothing, and she tried to get the snake out of the way.

" **NO, GET AWAY!** " Akane was running towards her at top speed. Taylor idly wondered why the other girl had her wooden sword to the back, preparing herself to slash.

That's when she noticed the snake was twitching. She raised her eyes to see the monster's head moving clumsily. Its jaws open, something like acid coming off its giant fangs.

Taylor tried to summon her ki again, punch a hole in the monster a second time, but she was exhausted. There was nothing she could do. She closed her eyes, hoping that at least one of her contributions to humanity, bringing back Richter to life, would lead to the destruction of the Endbringers.

She waited for Death to embrace her, but it never came.

She opened her eyes and her mouth was agape. "Akane?" She said and raised her arm.

Akane was standing next to her, with her sword implanted deep in the monster's head. It was now truly dead, but one of its fangs was also stabbing her shoulder. Akane's face was completely devoid of color, there was no life there. Then, buckets of blood flowed from her mouth.

Taylor fell to her knees. Sue stayed a few feet behind, shocked.

She felt her power finishing recharging itself, and she grabbed it. "Bring her back." She said in a low voice, ordering her power. " **BRING HER BACK!** " She yelled.

Suddenly a giant sphere of light appeared above them. After a moment, black clouds came from nowhere and completely darkened the sky. Only seven stars were visible. And when Taylor looked up at them, the stars began dancing around, and then fused into one large being.

A giant chinese dragon appeared before them, looking at them expectantly.


	14. Interlude 2B

Interlude 2.B

Taylor was breathing hard, almost out of it the moment the giant dragon showed itself right on top of Winslow High. She looked up, confused at first but she smiled weakly. She laughed for a split of a second before coughing. Her legs couldn't carry her anymore, and she fell on her ass.

Then, the giant eastern dragon spoke with a booming voice. "Reflect upon your desires mortals. For I shall grant any wish… but only one."

"Dragon." Taylor said. "It's an eternal dragon."

The dragon looked down at her. "State it. What is your wish."

"My wish is-" Taylor began to say, but Sue put her hand on her shoulder and pressed.

"Wait." Sue said. "That dragon grants wishes. Right?"

Taylor nodded. "Yes, he can grant any wish. My senses coming from him are completely different than from my other summons. I can- I can understand him almost as if he's part of myself."

"Did you get that, dad?" Sue said out loud.

Taylor shook her head as she heard Andrew Richter saying, "yes, Sue. Taylor. I know you can hear me, you were going to wish Akane back to life, right?"

Taylor looked up at the dragon. "Shen Long." She said, instinctively knowing his name. "You can bring back the dead, correct?"

The dragon's eyes shone for a second. "It is a simple matter." He looked left and right, and for a moment he almost looked confused. "However, it appears that in this world the rules that bind me are different from what I am used to." He leveled his gaze at Taylor and nodded. "I can grant any wish you ask. State it. If not, I can leave now."

"Wait, one second!" Sue exclaimed.

Andrew nodded to himself. "Ok. He can bring back anyone. Asking for everyone killed by Ouroboros could be a better idea. But… I have something bigger in mind."

Taylor tsked, she didn't want to waste time by talking. If the dragon decided they didn't have a wish, he would leave and be scattered across the Earth. She didn't want to waste months or even years searching for the dragon shards.

Then, Andrew told her his wording for the wish. She nodded, and grinned at the idea. "You sure it's smart?"

"I don't know if it's smart. But it is just." Andrew said.

Taylor nodded and looked up at the dragon. "Shen Long!" She exclaimed. "I have my wish!"

"State it!"

Taylor breathed in before shouting, "I want every good person who died, got frozen, petrified, or trapped in a time loop, by the monster snake, an Endbringer, or an evil parahuman to be restored. Their life should continue as it was before it was violently taken from them!"

The Dragon seemed to consider the wish. "That is 30 years of dead people. Are you certain you really wish for this?"

"YES!"

"Easily done." The dragon said, and with that, millions of lights started appearing around the world. Each one becoming a person who had died up to thirty years before, when the first parahuman appeared.

Blood flowed back to Akane's mouth. The snake's sharp fang swiftly removed itself from her shoulder, and then, the life went back to Akane's face. She breathed in, almost like she had been drowning a moment before.

The giant dragon seemed to smile at Taylor. "Your wish is granted. Fare you well." The dragon vanished, and its place, seven shiny spheres appeared. They danced in a circle for a moment and then, they all rocketed to different corners of the Earth.

The sky cleared itself, almost like it the dark clouds had never been there. Similarly, everyone who had been killed by the giant snake was alive again, almost as if they had never faced it, along with thirty years worth of victims to evil parahumans.

Taylor smiled at Akane, and hugged her. Akane looked startled at first, but hugged back.

Sue smiled from the background.

* * *

"I can't believe it." Legend said, looking at the person that had suddenly appeared in the meeting room. "You- you are-"

The armored man in front of him took off his helmet and smiled at him. "Still not gay."

Legend's eyes widened when the other man's smile grew into a grin. When Legend didn't say anything else, the other hero frowned. "What's wrong?"

Alexandria narrowed her eyes at the man. "Who are you?"

The man blinked and scratched the back of his neck. "Seriously? It's me, Hero."

* * *

Glaistig Uaine had her eyes closed, floating mid-air, meditating. All of a sudden, she felt something disturbing the entire world. A Dragon God summoned to a world he didn't belong.

The shadow that had been keeping her floating vanished, and she fell face-first to the floor. She growled under her breath. "What is- what-"

Many of her carefully collected powers over the years… they were just gone.

* * *

"Door, 54° South, 70° West" Contessa said, and stepping into the portal led her to the position of one of the seven shards that allowed the summoning of the wish-giving dragon.

The fedora-clad woman bent over and picked it up. And looked it over. For a moment she wondered how something so small could change the world in such a manner. The orange-sized rock didn't feel special, but-

She checked the steps to complete her current goal, and nodded to herself. The dragon could do what she needed. It really was game-changer. She just had to be patient, and wait one year to get what she needed.

"Six more to go." She closed her eyes, letting her power take over to lead her to the next position.

"Door, 43° North, 128° East." Another step, and another dragon shard down.

* * *

Later, a man with green skin showed up in Earth Bet. He narrowed his eyes, looking around. Everything felt different from what he remembered. For a moment he wondered about the walls that surrounded the place he had appeared in.

"What?" He frowned. "Where's that coward of a dragon- don't tell he can-" He growled under his breath. "It sent me away?"

He looked up and slowly floated to get a better view of the town he had shown up at. Everything looked strange, like it wasn't natural.

He moved forwards, examining the place. Birds with reptile-like features flew at him. He didn't mind.

When the birds reached him, they started trying to peck at him. A simple backhanded slap produced a great gust of wind that sent the strange bird creatures to the ground, breaking them into tiny pieces.

That's when he noticed something else. Lizard people silently stared at him from the ground. None of them appeared to have any real emotion in them.

He examined them for a moment and snorted. He opened his mouth, and started muttering under his breath. "Poko-pen… poko-pen… dah-leh-ga… tsu-tsui-ta… poko-pen… dah-leh-ga… tsu-tsui-ta…"

His mouth twisted and grew, alowing him to spit an enormous egg. It was covered in a green fluid. The egg landed by the lizard people, and they all turned to watch it intently.

"Raise my son, raise Bongo!"

All of the lizard people backed away as the egg started shaking and a hand broke it from the inside. Another followed, and a snake-like face appeared from the inside. The figure rose and bowed to the flying green man.

"Excelent, Bongo. Now, kill everyone here. Don't leave anyone alive."

"Yes, master." The figure said, and extended two bat-like wings.

The green man laughed as his creation extended his arms throwing bolts of lighting at the lizard-men, electrocuting them all. "Yes, yes! This pathetic world is about to learn who the Great Demon King Piccolo is!"


	15. Interlude 2C

**Interlude 2.C**

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 **Topic: New Hero team defeated ABB**

 **In: Boards ► Places ► America ►Brockton Bay**

 **Bruce Lao** (Original Poster)

Posted On Jan 9th 2011:

So, I'm minding my own business late at night when out of the sudden I hear gunfire! So, like an idiot I go watch what's going on. Turns out the ABB finally decided to advance in 'Merchant territory', but before anyone can be killed, a couple of capes show up and kick the ABB. The merchants obviously fled.

You had to see the girl in red -I think she's a girl- she just threw herself from a building or something and started kicking ass, then she took a sword from the ABB and slashed at them so they couldn't escape!

Then, some new cape that I had never seen before shows up and starts throwing bombs around, and sent the karate-girl flying to my building. In fact, the explossion went off pretty close from my window, so I ducked and called the PRT.

But by the time I peeked again, it was already over, bomb cape was down and the karate-girl's partner -guy or girl, couldn't tell from the distance- was kicking at his prone form.

So, what do you guys think, new hero team?

 **(Showing page 1 of 19)**

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 9th 2011:

god, i hope so!

► **Nondeceptive**

Replied On Jan 9th 2011:

Got any pics, Lao?

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 9th 2011:

Lao, you should've called the PRT first. Besides that, do you have any descriptions about these two? Sounds like one is a brute. Also, what do you mean when you say that " she took a sword from the ABB and slashed at them so they couldn't escape!". I'm sure she didn't kill them, otherwise you wouldn't be claiming she's a hero.

The bomb cape sounds like Bakuda. We heard about her the other day, remember? We even have athread for her.

► **Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)

Replied On Jan 9th 2011:

[Edited] I don't want to get fired. Please don't re-post the videos. I could lose my job.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 9th 2011:

OH EM GEE.

She totally tanked those bombs! So Brute 8? Or maybe 9?

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 9th 2011:

What? 8? 9?

Maybe? But not really.

I mean, that would meanthe new cape could go toe to toe with Alexandria, but I seriously doubt it. Also, she didn't really "tank" the bomb, you can see her mask is all shredded, right? And there's still red over there. She was bleeding. BAD. No way she's Brute 8, let alone 9. Maybe something between 2 or 5, I think.

► **Bruce Lao** (Original Poster)

Replied On Jan 9th 2011:

Wow. I wish I had my phone at hand, but I didn't record anything on my own. Are you sure you can just- you know, publish those videos?

► **Aloha**

Replied On Jan 9th 2011:

Videos? I don't see no videos?

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 9th 2011:

Reave posted some, but it looks like he edited his post quickly. I downloaded all of the videos and analyzed them.

Man. I don't think we've had this many videos of a random gang fight in a while. And look at her go with the sword. Is it wooden? She slashes from several yards away, and the ABB punk goes down? That's blaster 3 at least. Plus, she just showed up from the sky. Maybe she's also kind of a flying brick? Even if she was bleeding by the end, she still could go about.

But besides the red-girl, I'm interested in the blue-one (that's a girl, right? If not, sorry guy, you kinda look like a girl). She just summons that fat guy to get the collar off her! Teleporters are pretty rare, but I bet her range is really, really big.

The fat guy is also definetively a tinker, or a thinker at least. We don't really have all that much information on Bakuda's bombs, but she's a tinker, and I'm pretty sure only another tinker can disable them.

You can find off-site mirrors for the videos here, here, and here.

 **End of Page. 1,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **17** **,** **18** **,** **19**

 **Topic: Mass Resurrection [OT5] - All general discussions about the Event go here.**

 **In: Boards ► News ► Events ►Worldwide**

 **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Posted On Jan 14th 2011:

Ok. By now, everyone knows that pretty much everyone who has died in the last 30 years is alive, if they were either killed by a villain or an Endbringer.

I know it's in the thread title, but I have to make it clear that it is just for general discussions, nothing more.

It's the fifth official thread.

Thread 1

Thread 2

Thread 3

Thread 4

And on a related note, there's the thread about Shen Long, the Eastern Dragon who made it all possible.

Giant Dragon: The anti-endbringer?

Try to keep it together, we don't want this thread to be filled with banned tags.

 **(Showing page 500 of 500)**

► **Red Kaze** (Verified Cape) (Planeshifters) (Kyushu Survivor)

Replied On Jan 15th 2011:

So yes, we're calling ourselves the Plaenshifters, don't ask why. It was the idea of one of our newest members, and since we don't have a name yet, we're going with that. At least until we find a better name.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 15th 2011:

Cool. I'm your #1 fan, Red.

BTW, how did you summon Shen Long?

► **T-Rex** (Verified Cape) (Not a tinker) (Planeshifters)

Replied On Jan 15th 2011:

Yeah, I think that goes to the Shen Long thread. But I'll answer anyway, Red Kaze here is a Kyuushu survivor, she heard of the legend of Shen Long, and since she already had the four-star shard, she set off to find them. It took years to find all seven shards.

We were forced to summon Shen Long because Red Kaze had sacrificied herself in order to kill Oroboros, but we didn't want to ask for something so selfish as just reviving her -or Oroboros' victims- so we had Shen Long revive as many people as possible.

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 **Topic: Villain at Winslow High is killing everyone!**

 **In: Boards ► Places ► America ►Brockton Bay**

 **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Original Poster)

Posted On Jan 11th 2011:

OMG. I'm seriously in danger right now! there are loads of dead bodies all around my school (Winslow). I think there's some sort of evil cape going around school kiling everyone! I hid myself in a closet.

I think I am going to die guys. Is the Slaterhos 9 in town or what?

 **(Showing page 1 of 45)**

► **Decree**

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

"Slaterhos 9" Sounds like the porn parody of the Slaughterhouse 9.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Original Poster)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

Seriously? Grammar Police? There are people dying AS WE SPEAK!

► **Decree**

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

So? What am I supposed to do about it? Call the Protectorate, or something.

► **CapRogers** (Verified PRT Agent)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

I can confirm there's a situation going on at Winslow High right now. The PRT, Protectorate, Wards, and other allied teams are on-site. But I think it's a overkill. Armsmaster is probably end up dealing with the villain on his own or seomthing.

► **Decree**

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

"Seomthing".

I'm sure Void is sighing in relief now that agents like you are on site, Captain.

► **CapRogers** (Verified PRT Agent)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

You think I would be posting on PHO if I was there? I'm at home ATM, but some of my buddies are there. I know whats going on, your just some coward who hides behind the keyboard.

► **Decree**

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

"What's"

"You're"

Geez. You're making it easy.

► **Majic**

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

I got a buddy who goes to Winslow, I called him and he's not responding. I hope he's all right.

► **Someone** (Veteran Member)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

I don't know, Void is always making up shit. It's probably just a gang fight or something.

 **End of Page. 1,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **43** **,** **44** **,** **45**

 **(Showing page 2 of 45)**

► **HandOfNod** (Veteran Member)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

A PRT member confirmed something's going on at Winslow, something big enough that it needs not just the PRT, but the Protectorate, Wards AND allied teams. You know how hard is it for the PRT to make guys like New Wave do ANYTHING they tell them?

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Original Poster)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

I saw it! Armsmaster was fighting it, but I think he never got a chanse of attacking! I think it's an Endbringer!

► **Decree**

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

Endbringer? What, so, we just got confirmation the PRT is there, and some random PRT nobody says Armsmaster could solo this guy, and you just decide to declare him dead? It's probably just some new cape. Man. You're the biggest Troll this side of the board.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Original Poster)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

[censored] You! I'm in danger! I went back to the closet, don't want to take any chances. It's not a cape I tell you, unless there're capes who look like GIANT SNAKES.

► **Decree**

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

Giant snakes? Oh. Wow.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Original Poster)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

Here, I just uploaded a pic I took of the thing. It's from the back, but I tell you, it's a new Endbringer!

► **Ekul**

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

Wow. I think he's legit. What is that?

► **T-Rex** (Verified Cape) (Not a tinker) (Planeshifters)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

I'm a cape on Winslow, I'm with our team, the Planeshifters. We're following the snake right now, one of our teammates is already engaging it. The monster has two powers, the first one allows it to petrify people, sorta like what Clockblocker does. The second power is scarier. It just kills people on sight.

► **Majic**

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

Kill on sight? What? Have you seen a guy with green hair? He uses a red biker jacket all the time, you can't miss him.

► **T-Rex** (Verified Cape) (Not a tinker) (Planeshifters)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

Sorry. Didn't see your buddy.

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 **Topic: Oroboros: A fourth Endbringer?**

 **In: Boards ► News ► Events ► Worldwide**

 **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Original Poster)

Posted On Jan 12th 2011:

So, Oroboros was scary as [censored]. I think it's the fourth Endbringer. What do you guys think?

 **(Showing page 1 of 1)**

► **SupremeTinker** (Verified Cape) (The Guy in the Know) (Administrator)

Replied On Jan 12th 2011:

Oroboros is not an Endbringer. It's an A-level threat, yes. But once the Planeshifters figured out how its powers worked -it needed to see your eyes to affect you- it was fairly easy for them to kill it.

Oroboros was scary as hell. But nowhere near Leviathan or its siblings. Red Kaze killed it by stabbing its head, something that just doesn't stop the Endbringers.

I certainly hope there's **NO** fourth Endbringer.

I'm closing this thread and giving you another warning Void, you don't need to be the center of attention all the time. We get it, you were the first one to post about Oroboros in the board, but stop with the spam.

 **End of Page. 1**

 **Topic: Saffron**

 **In: Boards ► Places ► America ►Brockton Bay**

 **Laotsunn** (Original Poster) (Kyushu Survivor)

Posted On Jan 10th 2011:

The reason the ABB is kicking the Empire's colective ass. This is his discussion thread.

 **(Showing page 3 of 11)**

► **Kumata** (Banned)

Replied On Jan 10th 2011:

You obviously never seen Saffron face to face. He could kill you in the blink of an eye. He's glorious, second only to Lung. We have the Dragon and the Phoenix now. The Empire is going to go down.

► **GoodNinja**

Replied On Jan 10th 2011:

I don't know about how 'glorious' Saffron is. But I can safely say that he's scary as hell.

On a related matter, I saw him last night making some of the younger ABB carry a box full of eggs. Yes. You read that right. eggs. Wonder what's up with that.

► **BadSamurai**

Replied On Jan 10th 2011:

Eggs? I don't know about that. But I was close by when Saffron first showed up. He blew up Lung's underground casino, like, in a single shot. Dude is scary as hell.

► **CapRogers** (Verified PRT Agent)

Replied On Jan 10th 2011:

We are aware of that fight. Our sources say that Saffron almost killed Lung.

► **Decree**

Replied On Jan 10th 2011:

What's up with that name? "Saffron" Sounds like a girl.

► **CapRogers** (Verified PRT Agent)

Replied On Jan 10th 2011:

Yeah... I wouldn't go around calling him a girl. If he can level a building in a single shot, he can call himself whatever he wants. In fact, he seems to be able to produce more heat than Lung when he wants to. He's his own plasma rifle, plus he has instant regeneration, and has wings big enough to fly on his own.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 10th 2011:

He sounds scary. Man. Just when I was getting excited about that new hero team

► **Kumata** (Banned)

Replied On Jan 10th 2011:

The eggs are for his Master power. We won't just destroy the Empire, we will make them our slaves.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

I wonder how eggs can mind-control people

► **SupremeTinker** (Verified Cape) (The Guy in the Know) (Administrator)

Replied On Jan 11th 2011:

Yeah... Kumata, I'm banning you. But thanks for the info!

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 **Topic: Giant Dragon: The anti-endbringer?**

 **In: Boards ► News ► Events ►America ► Brockton Bay**

 **T-Rex** (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Not a tinker) (Planeshifters)

Posted On Jan 11th 2011:

So, everyone and their mother heard about the giant Eastern Dragon that showed up on Brockton Bay, right?

If not, you can go here, here, or here. If you need more, you can always go to the wiki.

The Dragon seems to be benevolent. He is actually the reason everyone on Earth killed by villains or endbringers got resurrected.

 **(Showing page 55 of 141)**

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 13th 2011:

Wow. How did you get that kind of picture? Not even the local newspaper got that good of a shot!

► **T-Rex** (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Not a tinker) (Planeshifters)

Replied On Jan 13th 2011:

I took a photo as soon as he showed up, of course. I was one of his summoners.

► **Laotsunn** (Kyushu Survivor)

Replied On Jan 13th 2011:

Summon? He is Seiryū, isn't he?

► **T-Rex** (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Not a tinker) (Planeshifters)

Replied On Jan 13th 2011:

Sei-who?

► **Tin Mother** (Moderator)

Replied On Jan 13th 2011:

Seiryū is the way Japanese people call the legendary Azure Dragon, one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations who protects the East. He does look like an Eastern Dragon, and his ability to resurrect the dead makes him very god-like.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 13th 2011:

Azure Dragon? But this one is green.

Isn't azure a kind of blue? How is blue, green?

► **Blue** (Verified Cape) (Planeshifters)

Replied On Jan 13th 2011:

I don't know about any Seiryu. The dragon's name is Shen Long. He's an eternal dragon who is able to grant any one wish, once you gather all his shards across the world.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 13th 2011:

What's going on in Brockton Bay? First you get another cape to back-up Lung that is actually as strong as he is, then you get a crazy Endbringer-lite monster-thing, and almost instantly after that, some sort of "AntiEndbringer"? And this 'Shen Long' can grant wishes? What's up with that? Who is he?

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 13th 2011:

Not to complain, but why does this thread exist, if my own "Oroboros as the fourth end-bringer" was closed?

► **Tin Mother** (Moderator)

Replied On Jan 13th 2011:

Because the "Anti-Endbringer" here doesn't mean he's literally something that can fight an Endbringer, it means Shen Long literally undid most of what the Endbringers' did.

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	16. 3-1 Assemble

**3.1 Assemble**

I sighed as I dropped my ass onto the chair. I used its little wheels to swing a bit to the left, and then a bit to the right, examining the conference room. It was way neater than I expected, and almost every single detail screamed 'Tinkertech'. The wall opposite to me wasn't really a wall from what I could tell, but some sort of interactive screen.

I smiled as Akane entered the room and waved her way. She nodded at me, and then motioned someone on the other side to come inside. I focused on my summons' senses and knew it was Myrtle there, she was experiencing fear at all the strange things inside the building.

I was about to tell her to come inside already, when a simple glare from Akane seemed to do the trick. The british girl hurried inside, and when she saw me, she sat on the chair furthest from my own. Akane rolled her eyes and smirked as she walked to my side and sat.

"Sorry about that." She said with a look that wasn't exactly apologetic. I extended my senses to feel her emotions and frowned, she felt protective of the other girl, and was directing some anger my way.

I drew in a deep breath. I really had blew it with Myrtle. The girl hadn't deserved the mistreatment I had given her after I summoned her.

I started to say, "look, Myrtle I-"

But the other girl raised her hands and interrupted me. "Ravenclaw."

"What?"

"Ravenclaw. It's my cape name. Akane helped me choose it."

I slowly nodded. It didn't surprise me she chose that name, considering where she comes from. I shook my head, looking her over. She looked absolutely ridiculous, with a dark blue robe and a pointy hat. Her mask laid on the meeting table in front of it, a plastic (or was it ceramic) mask that resembled the green skinned witch from the Wizard of Oz.

"Ravenclaw." I said, softly. "I don't really have any excuse for the way I treated you."

She shifted on her seat, surprised. She hadn't expected an apology. She wasn't used to them.

I continued. "I wasn't thinking straight. I- I will not do it again."

She blinked, and nodded. "Don't worry about that, you brought me back from the dead, I owe you."

I shook my head. "No. You really don't."

She opened her mouth to say something else, when Andrew Richter entered the conference room, followed by Sue and two women I didn't recognize. The one on the front, I figured was Dragon, her new organic-like body looked like a movie star, tall blonde with lots of curves and breasts as big as my head, perky too. The one on the back looked more… mousy-like, younger also, but not quite as young as Sue, probably Scatha.

My thoughts lingered for a moment in Richter's claims that Dragon and Scatha were Tinkers like him. They weren't humans, of that I was sure, so how did expect us to believe they could possibly have parahuman powers? Sue's claim to a Striker power was also suspect, if anything she had a Breaker power thanks to her ability to change into her fighter mode.

"Hello everyone!" Andrew said, with a wide wave.

Akane sighed and nodded at him. "Hey."

Both Dragon and Scatha sat near the screen, with Sue standing behind a seat between them. Andrew stood in front of the screen and looked us over, waiting to see if anyone had anything to say.

"Ok. We're all here, right?" He said, eyeing me. "No new heroes for the party?"

I shook my head. "No more heroes."

"Excellent." He said, with a large smile. "Now that we have Taylor with us- or is it Blue?"

"Planeswalker." I said. Sure that I had my true cape name now.

He nodded. "Now that we have Planeswalker with us, we can actually start doing some shit." Louder, he said, "we're now starting the third official meeting of the Planeshifters."

It was actually the first meeting I attended in person. Following our fight with the killer snake dubbed by PHO and the media as 'Oroboros', and the summoning of Shen Long, I was left exhausted. I needed three whole weeks of mandatory Hospital stay. At least Sue had gifted me a laptop with Internet connection to entertain myself.

Andrew's smile turned into a grin. "It's also the first time we have our full membership on site."

Akane raised her hand. "Full? Doesn't Sue have another sister?"

"Rodan isn't actually a member of the Planeshifter, nor is Dragon." He said, and nodded at his eldest daughter. "They're merely allies. Dragon in particular is a sponsor for our team, thanks to her vouching for us, we can act as an official hero team."

Akane frowned. She was thinking that she hadn't actually asked about Dragon or our status as an official hero team.

"Since this is the first time we're all here together," he said, eyeing Akane, expecting to be interrupted. "I thought it would be a good idea to summarize what we talked about last week."

I raised my hand. "I actually know what you guys talked about. I can see and hear what you hear, remember?"

"Even so, humor me, please." He said.

I gritted my teeth, but nodded. I idly wondered who had made him team leader. If it wasn't for me, the team wouldn't even exist.

He bowed a little and then pressed a button in a remote I hadn't seen before. On the background, the screen turned on and showed Shen Long. "First, the elephant in the room. Dragon here has been kind enough to share with us the latest developments regarding the effects our wish had on the world." He pressed the button again, and the image shifted to a world map, filled with numbers. "On total, the number of resurrections are close to 1 billion people. This, of course, poses a kind of a problem to all the states around the globe, because they suddenly have 1 billion more mouths to feed."

I gulped at that. We hadn't really thought that far ahead.

He pressed the button again and the map zoomed-in to Japan. "Interesting is the case of Japan, one of the most affected countries and also one of the countries we could more closely analyze." Another button press, and the image shifted to something akin to a radiograph of the country. "Kyushu victims have more or less appeared scattered on nearby islands, and for some reason the radioactivity levels have vanished entirely."

Akane frowned. "What, so it's safe to live there now?"

"Yes. It appears that, even though we didn't specify that, Shen Long saw fit to help the people he resurrected have a chance at living without being instantly given cancer or worse."

I nodded. I knew that already. Shen Long had told me he had tried to do the best he could with the wish I had given him. When I made the wish, I was half expecting him to bring a billion literal zombies to the world, but thankfully he wasn't really like the evil genies that fill all those old stories.

I tuned out of what Andrew was saying, and remembered a recurring dream I had each night during my latest stay in the hospital.

* * *

I was back inside. Back in the locker. It was still filled with grotesque toxic waste, plus my own upchuck. I could barely breath, and I was sure I was going to die this time, that Akane wasn't coming to help me, that she detested me for taking her away from her friends, family, and love.

I was crying. I wanted to be a hero, not a victim. I wanted to live my life, to be someone people aspired to.

That's when I felt something deep inside of me _ignite_ with power, greater than my own ability to summon heroes, far beyond it. I felt as if I had more than a million eyes, each one looking into a different plane of existence, and my feet had the ability to take me to any of those planes.

I could leave the locker at any time. I was free to walk across the worlds. Leave Earth Bet behind.

I forced myself to close most of my eyes, to focus on a single plane. On a world where a boy had killed what many would call a god. The boy commanded ice and wind, into a shredding tornado that annihilated his opponent . The boy had tried to save the girl that he loved.

He failed. I could see. Her spirit wasn't even in her own body. Akane was dead.

I was going to take a step in their direction, I _knew_ I could help. I could put her spirit back into her own body. I could be a hero, or at least, help one.

When I realized all the power I had within me, I felt something else explode within me. I had a power beyond that of even Eidolon at my fingertips. But something- someone- was trying to tame me, to block the access I had to my **spark**. It was a monstrous worm, something that didn't live in any one plane of existence.

A fraction of this colossal being was hidden deep inside my head. I turned my attention away from the boy trying to save the girl he loved, and focused on my own plight. I realized that the fraction was as alive as the whole. It identified itself as a manager, a ruler of sorts, and it was linked, not just to myself, but to my spark as well. It was almost parasitic in nature, but symbiotic at the same time. It wanted to live off me and my experiences, but it also wanted to end me before going on her own merry way.

I got to take a closer look at the whole it used to belong to. The impossibly giant, multi-plane, being, how it danced with its mate, how it was now alone, almost depressed, if such a being could _feel_ depression as we do. I saw deep into the fraction of this monster, in fact we saw each other, and we changed each other. It became more, not just a fraction, but separate from the whole it used to belong, and now it was mine. I changed as well. No longer did I feel my feet had the ability to transcend planes, but in exchange I now could give it to others to aid me.

I focused again on that dead girl. That poor girl who had sacrificed her own life in order to protect the boy she loved, and I knew what I had to do. I had to help myself, but still keep her in one piece. They could have their happily ever after once I had what I needed.

* * *

"Taylor!" I heard someone yelling at me, and abruptly opened my eyes as I noticed Akane shaking my shoulders. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm OK." I lied. I could've helped her, and instead I helped myself.

Everyone looked at me with a worried expression. "Are you certain?" Dragon asked me.

I glared. "Yes. I just had some trouble sleeping last night. So- you were talking about Shen Long and how he affected the world?"

Andrew nodded, rather slowly. "Also, on a related matter, we have the PRT wanting our heads for the leak on the information regarding Shen Long. I had the Director Costa Brown yelling at me for not being prudent. Something about the Slaughterhouse 9 going on a quest to find all the dragon's balls."

"Dragon balls." I corrected, irritated. "Not dragon's balls."

He smiled. "Same thing."

"That's also why I'm calling them dragon shards, less laughter that way." I said, and closed my eyes, and focused on my link with Shen Long. The dragon balls were indeed being hunted down, only the four star and seven star balls were still missing. "Yes, someone is indeed hunting them."

Dragon and Scatha looked at each other with a perturbed expression painted on their faces. Dragon turned to me and said, as softly as (in)humanly possible, "how can you tell?"

"My link with my summons. I still can talk with Shen Long. And he can give me live feed on where the ba- shards are. Someone is hunting for them, but it's strange, like- they got five in a blink of an eye but two are still missing."

"You can talk with Shen Long?" Andrew blinked, surprised. "Wait, how does that work?"

"Yes, he's at the Earth's core right now, chilling for at least an year. After Oroboros the link to my summons improved, Shen Long in particular was greater in that sense. So, I can have mental conversations with him."

Myrtle furrowed her brow. "What about us? Can you have mental conversations with us?"

I smirked, and sent her a mental image.

She immediately blushed deep red. "Oh, for Merlin's sake. What the heck?"

Akane turned to me. "What did you do?"

"I told her she looks cute, dressed like a witch." I left unsaid the _random Halloween witch_ part.

Andrew nodded. "We'll have to test that later. Ok. So, the PRT is angry at us for leaking the info, and now angry at Dragon for refusing to ban everyone speaking about Shen Long on PHO. What do we do about it?"

"Nothing." I said. "If the Slaughterhouse 9 is really getting the balls together," I cursed as half my audience giggled at the word 'balls', "then, I can always speak to Shen Long as he asks for a wish, and ask for, I don't know, Akane's panties or something."

The japanese girl blushed a deep shade of red. "Hey! Don't be a pervert!"

Andrew looked me over, unconvinced. "Are you sure it works like that?"

"Yes. I'm sure. Also, if it doesn't, I can always change the password needed to make the shards summon him."

Andrew nodded. "Very well, we will continue openly speaking about this then. And the story about Akane here being the one who 'found' the legend of the dragon balls stands. Scatha was kind enough to alter evidence of the balls existing in the past, and even fabricated stories about the dragon being summoned a couple of times over the ages."

"Sounds… difficult to believe." I muttered.

"If the legend is to be believed, he _had_ to be summoned at least once before." He insisted.

"Ok." I just said, not really caring much either way.

He gave me a satisfactory nod and smiled at all of us. "Ok, now that that's dealt with for now. Let's go to the heart of this meeting. We have to choose our leader."

I blinked. "Wait, you're not it?"

He actually laughed at that. "Me? Naw, I'm the wise old man who gives the heroes his wisdom to help them out. Besides, I will never be in the field if I can help it."

I closed my eyes. I could do it. I could be the leader.

Did I want to?


	17. 3-2 Assemble

**3.2 Assemble**

I closed my eyes and massaged my temples. "Who wants to be leader?" I asked, looking around. There weren't many of us, and from what Richter had said, neither he, nor Dragon were eligible. That left Scatha, whom I never really met before, Sue, Akane, Myrtle, and myself.

I waited a minute, and when no one raised their hand, I looked at Akane with a confused expression. I had fully expected her to want the job. Of course, Myrtle wasn't really leader material, and neither was Sue. Scatha, I had no idea, but that very reason disqualified her.

"What about you, Akane?" I asked her.

Akane gave me an apologetic smile. "Sorry Taylor, I think you're the best suited for this."

"Best suited for this?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Andrew Richter clapped and smiled. "Well, that's decided then, Taylor is the Planeshifter's leader, now we can move on to-"

"Wait a moment." I exclaimed, standing up. I took a deep breath. I had to tell them. I couldn't just become the leader only for them to find out later about what I have done. "I have something important to announce, before a decision is made about this."

Richter looked at Akane with uncertainty, before slowly nodding my way. "Uh, Okay. What do you have for us?"

I closed my eyes for a second, focusing on all my summons' eyes, making sure I could sense everything they were sensing before I started. I could feel dread and confusion from some of them. "I am sure all of us have noticed about the new element in our city."

Akane tilted her head to the side, understanding. "Ah, you're talking about Saffron." Even though she forced herself to sound casual about it, I could taste the venom in her voice. She hated Saffron. She hated him like she hated no other.

"Yes. Saffron." I said. "He's a new element. Someone who has massive powers that have put the ABB as the most dangerous gang in the city, pushing the Empire to a far away second place."

Sue frowned. "I am not sure it's that bad, Saffron's is a Blaster 9, yes, but other than that he-"

Dragon shook her head. "He's also a regenerator, and his flight qualifies him as a Mover 4. But what's truly dangerous about him is-"

"His eggs." Akane said, interrupting. "He has mind controlling eggs. He used it on some of my friends, before I died."

Sue shrugged. "Really? So, waht? Master 5?"

"Master 8. At least." Dragon said. "The eggs make whoever is affected by them totally loyal to the master. It's not an active power, the victim is imprinted with a trust and love for the master, and they want the master to succeed in everything they set to do." Dragon looked around, making sure that everyone was paying attention to her. "Armsmaster's sources state that in a recent battle, the ABB managed to snatch Othala. She's been imprinted by Lung."

"By Lung?" Myrtle asked. "I thought Saffron was the master?"

"Saffron can make the eggs, but the imprinted are controlled by the first person they see." Dragon explained. "Lung is not about to allow Saffron to enslave people, if he can be the master himself."

I felt small for a moment. Like what I was to announce was even worse than that. I knew Saffron's people claimed he could mind-control people. But the imprinting eggs sounded worse than what I imagined. I guess we would have to start carrying mirrors with us, just to make sure no one gets imprinted.

I shook my head. I had to stay on target. "That's one of the things I wanted to talk about, but we have all to question, why has Saffron shown up in Brockton Bay?"

Akane blinked. "I figured he's just the counterpart from this world."

"No one has heard from Saffron before." I countered. "No one, that is, until the day I triggered."

Akane looked at me strangely, not fully understanding what I was saying. Then, it hit her. She looked like she wanted to yell at me, but settled for looking down.

Richter nodded, rather sadly. "You're saying it's a side-effect from your power."

"Yes." I said, still staring at Akane, searching for any clue that she didn't hate me for bringing over her killer.

"But you don't have any way of sensing him. Correct?" Dragon asked.

"No. I figured it out surfing PHO, actually. Plus, Oroboros."

"Oroboros?" Myrtle asked, perking up.

"It showed up when I summoned you." I said, turning to face the witch. "Didn't you think it was strange?"

"What? What was strange?" She asked, rather dumbly.

"That you didn't remember killing yourself. That you remember feeling sad, but not- not really intending to kill yourself. There was nothing special about that bathroom you died in." I paused, and took a breath. "Or rather, there was. The Oroboros was lurking."

"That's silly." Myrtle countered. "Professor Dippet wouldn't allow an mad murderous giant snake go around school grounds! Not to mention Professor Dumbledore!"

"It fits. What's the last thing you remember, before dying?" I asked, and focused on her memory. There was the voice of a boy saying something strange, in a tongue not of this world, and then, the eyes of Death itself.

She froze in place. "I- yes." She gulped. "I think- I think you're right."

I nodded, and turned back to everyone else. "You see? Every time I find myself in a problematic situation, my power brings someone to help me. A new hero to the party. But it also brings an enemy. A monster for us to fight."

Everyone shifted uncomfortably on their seats. "You're saying that this somehow makes you unfit to lead?" Richter finally asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. But I think it's important for everyone here to know about it. I rather not lie about it."

Sue smiled. "That's OK. Your power brought dad back to life, and that in turn created us!" She said, pointing at herself and Scatha. "Plus, Rodan is totally going to kick ass when she's ready."

I softly smiled at that. "I am sure she will."

Dragon nodded. "Also, while Akane is not the most powerful brute around, she has the ability to teach you her skills. And I believe she's able to teach others as well." She turned towards Akane. "One thing I was going to ask you, is to start an intense training schedule to improve Myrtyle and Taylor's chances of survival. We can't depend on Shen Long to bring us back from the dead."

Akane nodded, not completely convinced. "I could do that."

"Some wards might also be interested in learning how to harness your 'Chi'."

Akane smirked. "That's the chinese word. Where I come from, it's Ki."

"Right." Dragon nodded, and turned back to me. "You see? While Richter and Akane might not look like they're the best, they certainly can help you all become better than the best."

"What about me?" Myrtle asked, feeling left out.

Dragon smiled at her. "You can do magic. Actual magic that doesn't seem to have any limit other than your own knowledge. If we can replicate your wand and find more people able to harness magic it could be huge."

I nodded. "Yes. It's wonderful." I glared at Dragon. "Of course, you're forgetting two things."

Dragon looked back at me. Unblinking eyes reminded me that she wasn't really human. "Oh? What have I forgotten?"

"Richter. What killed him?"

"He drowned." She said, probably knowing where I was getting to.

"He drowned because of Leviathan." I looked down. "What if I made things so much worse, we can never even get close to being 'better than the best'? Huh?"

Dragon shifted on her seat, and fell silent.

Richter smiled at his daughter. "It's a possibility we considered." He said, and pat Dragon on the back. "It doesn't matter. If there are two, or twenty Leviathans. Dragon and her sisters will deal with all of them."

I felt like I was on the losing side of an argument. He just needed to say 'with sufficient use of Dragon, we can defeat any foe' and that would be it! "What about Shen Long?" I asked.

"Who killed the Dragon God?" Richter asked, and massaged his chin. "That's a good question, actually."

"Whoever could kill Shen Long must be insanely strong. Someone like that could maybe put the Endbringers to shame." Akane offered. "And I don't think even Saffron could kill Shen Long."

Richter glared at Akane. "What? Because he has magic and can revive people he must be impossible to kill? Anyone can be killed. Maybe he just happened to be summoned when an atomic bomb exploded."

"Somehow, I doubt that." I said.

Dragon sighed. "Okay, Taylor. I will investigate both the second Leviathan theory, and Shen Long's killer."

I felt… relieved? No, that wasn't the word. I felt slightly content. I could now look forward to what followed. "Thank you." I said, and sat back down. "Now, as you can see, how can I be the leader, when I created some of our worst enemies? I shouldn't use my power at all."

"You could still use your magical super piercing punch." Sue offered. "You know, the thing that left the Oroboros half-dead?"

I massaged my fist at the memory. "That thing left me unable to move for weeks, you know. I don't think I could pull it off again."

"You will." Akane said. "Because I'm going to teach you. Really teach you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Akane simply said.

"By the way," Sue said as she lifter her hand, "You have my vote. You brought back my dad, and I exist because of that, I cannot vote for anyone else."

Myrtle nodded, and lifted her hand as well. "Yes, if it weren't for you, I'd probably be a ghost about now. Plus, you got me away from my bullies."

Akane smirked. "I'm OK with you being leader, Taylor. You need to trust yourself. We can figure it out."

Scatha nodded, and talked for the first time, "we can find a way around your problem. Help you get to capes that weren't killed by villains, or capes who were killed by containable villains."

"Or actual villains that were killed by badass heroes." Sue offered.

Scatha looked at Sue and blinked. "Yes, we can do that as well."

I scratched the back of my head. "What? How can I do that? I just activate my power and it does the selecting on its own."

Scatha tilted her head to the side. "Are you certain?"

"Yes?" No.

"My tinkertech could help you focus on your power better." She said, and she started taking notes on a laptop I hadn't seen before. "I can make you an antenna of sorts, that helps you contain your power, and point it to a more beneficial target."

"Like, what?"

"Like, if we need a healer, instead of getting one that can only heal the particular wound you need to heal at the moment, my tech could help you get someone more broad instead."

"Someone who can heal like panacea, you mean?"

"Yes."

I frowned. She didn't understand. "But that's not the problem. The problem is, that my power could provide me a Panacea-level healer, that was killed by a Eidolon level bad guy."

"We could test that, too. Contain the summoning. Either block the unintended quirk of your power, or point the 'bad guy' to a volcano."

"That wouldn't have killed Saffron." Akane provided.

Scatha nodded. "Of course not, but I believe Taylor's power allows her to see more about the worlds she lift heroes from. My tech could help her time it just right for her to judge about where to send the villain. Maybe to the Sun?"

"I don't think Saffron can survive the Sun." Akane agreed.

Richter glowed. "Excellent! So it's decided. Taylor is leader, and Scatha will focus her next project on making a, huh, antenna to help her focus her summoning power better. Everyone on board with this?"

All of our hands lifted at that. But somehow, I felt my power wouldn't like me sending villains to the Sun.


End file.
